NEW AMERICAN PLANT

GENERA.

...it is truly very difficult to judge. Because, however, in all species which I myself have seen in the American Islands, or have observed among the writings of authors, the same appearance is present, with a similar way of flowering and fruiting (namely, the eruption of flowers and fruits from the hollow of the sheaths vaginae or spathes spathae A "spathe" is a large, leaf-like bract that encloses the flower cluster of certain plants, like palms or lilies.), a simple, straight trunk caudex, possessing no branches, but only leafy ribs The author uses "costis" (ribs) to describe the large, structured fronds of the palm. arranged in a circle at the very summit; I have judged that the essential character of the Palm should be taken from this very appearance and from the mode of bearing flowers and fruits, defining and establishing its character as follows:

Table I.

The Palm is a genus of plant with a single straight trunk A, which does not produce branches, nor is it able to put forth shoots from the root, but is provided at the top with ribs arranged in a circle B, which bear the leaves; these wither or fall away from old age, while new ones always emerge from the middle of the remaining ones; between these, the sheaths or spathes C burst forth, opening from bottom to top, and are filled with clustered flowers and embryos.

By this character, the Palm is distinguished from certain species of tree-fern, which indeed rise with a simple, straight trunk, producing neither branches nor shoots, but only leafy ribs arranged in a circle at the top, which fall away from age as new ones always grow through the middle. It is also distinguished from species of that plant which is commonly called the Banana original: "Bananier" or Musa; which also possesses a simple trunk, provided with leaves arranged in a circle at the summit, and producing a sheath filled with a cluster of flowers and embryos; but from the root of individual species, or of any trunk, suckers stolones In botany, a stolon or sucker is a shoot that grows from the base of the plant to create a new individual, allowing the plant to spread. are produced for the sake of perpetuating the plant.

The species of Palm are:
Greater Palm. Caspar Bauhin, Pinax, page 506. Date-bearing Palm, Linschoten, Navigatio ac Itinerarium, Part 4 of the East Indies, figure 14.
Lesser Palm. Caspar Bauhin, Pinax, page 506. Dwarf Palm original: "Chamæriphes"; see Dodoens, Pemptades, page 820.
Indian coconut-bearing, angular Palm. Caspar Bauhin, Pinax, page 508. The Tenga, Hortus Malabaricus (Garden of Malabar), figure 1, volume 1.
The Palm whose stalkless fruit is called Faufel This refers to the Areca or Betel nut palm., Caspar Bauhin, Pinax, page 519. Caunga, Hortus Malabaricus, figure 5, volume 1.
Coconut-bearing palm with a folded leaf and smaller fruit, described by Paul Hermann. Carim-pana, Hortus Malabaricus, figure 9, volume 1.
Malabar palm with star-shaped flowers and long scaly fruit, in