Genus Astrocaryum, Meyer.
Female flowers few in number, situated beneath the males on the same spadix. Spathe complete, woody. Male flowers with six stamens and a rudimentary pistil. Female flowers with three stigmas and a rudimentary ring of stamens.
In this genus the stems are generally lofty and thickly set with rings of spines, but some species are stemless. The leaves are large and pinnate, the leaflets elongate and linear, and as well as the petioles very prickly. The spadices are simply branched, and the fruits are ovate or globose, with a fibrous or fleshy covering, sometimes eatable.
Sixteen species of these Palms are known, inhabiting Mexico, Brazil, and other parts of South America, but not extending higher up the mountains than 2000 feet above the sea. They have rather a repulsive aspect, from almost every part,—stem, leaves, fruit-stalk and spathe, being armed with acute spines in some cases a foot long.
Pl. XXXVIII.
W. Fitch lith. Ford & West Imp.
ASTROCARYUM MURUMURU. Ht. 20 Ft.
PLATE XXXVIII.
Astrocaryum murumurú, Martius.
Murumurú, Lingoa Geral.
This palm has the stem from eight to twelve feet high, irregularly ringed, and armed with long scattered black spines. The leaves are terminal and of moderate size, regularly pinnate, the leaflets spreading out uniformly in one plane, elongate, acute, with the terminal pair shorter and broader. The petioles and sheathing bases are thickly covered with long black spines generally directed downwards, and often eight inches long.
The spadices grow from among the leaves and are simply branched and spiny, erect when in flower, but drooping with the fruit. The spathes are elongate, splitting open and deciduous. The fruit is of a moderate size, oval, of a yellowish colour, and with a small quantity of rather juicy eatable pulp covering the stony seed.