PLATE XLI.Astrocaryum tucuma,Martius.

Tucumá,Lingoa Geral.

This palm is from thirty to forty feet in height, and has the stem armed with narrow rings of black spines. The leaves are terminal, rather large and regularly pinnate. The leaflets are elongate, linear and much drooping, and the midribs and petioles are very prickly. The sheathing bases of the leaf-stalks are very much swollen where they spring from the stem. The spadix grows erect from among the leaves and is simply branched. The fruit is nearly globular, of a greenish yellow colour, with a layer of yellow fleshy pulp covering the stony seed, much resembling the fruit of the Mucujá and equally esteemed for food by the Indians.

This species is very nearly allied to the last, but may readily be distinguished by its globular fruit, more drooping leaflets, less prickly habit, and the peculiar aspect of its swollen petioles. It is abundant near Pará, and is also found in the dry virgin forests of the Upper Amazon and Rio Negro.

There are young living plants in the Palm House of the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew.

Plate II. fig. 5. represents a fruit of the natural size.

Pl. XLII.W. Fitch lith.Ford & West Imp.ASTROCARYUM JAUARI Ht. 40 Ft.

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