These are small palms with slender, smooth, ringed, reed-like stems. The leaves are large, regularly or irregularly pinnate, with the leaflets broad, and the bases of the petioles sheathing. The spadices are slender and more or less branched, and the spathes are double but small and membranous. The fruits are small, round or ovate, and are not eatable. There are thirty-three species of this genus known, all of small size, and inhabiting various parts of South America and Mexico, from the level of the sea to 2000 feet above it. Many species may be seen flourishing in the Palm House at Kew. [Illustration: Pl. XXIII. W. Fitch lith. Ford & West Imp. GENOMA MULTIFLORA. Ht. 12 Ft. ] PLATE XXIII. GEONOMA MULTIFLORA, _Martius_. Ubimrána, _Lingoa Geral_. This handsome species is from eight to fifteen feet high, and has the stem regularly ringed or jointed, giving it a reed-like appearance. The leaves are very large, regularly pinnate and gracefully drooping on every side. The leaflets are very regularly placed on the midrib, and the terminal pair are much larger and broader. The petioles are slender and smooth, and the sheathing bases have an expanded fibrous margin. The spadices grow from among the lower leaves, and are short, erect and simply branched. The spathes are very small and concealed among the petioles. The fruit is small, ovate, and when ripe of a red colour. This appears to be the _Geonoma multiflora_ of Martius, but the species are so closely allied that without a comparison of specimens it is very difficult absolutely to identify them. I have found it only in the Catinga forests of the Upper Rio Negro, where it occurs very sparingly. A fruit is represented on the Plate of the natural size. [Illustration: Pl. XXIV. W. Fitch lith. Ford & West Imp. GEONOMA PANICULIGERA. Ht. 9 Ft. ] PLATE XXIV. GEONOMA PANICULIGERA, _Martius_. Ubim de Cotiwiya, _Lingoa Geral_. This is a species from six to nine feet high and very similar in appearance to the last. The leaves, however, have only three or four pairs of leaflets of irregular width, the terminal pair being always very large and broad, and the others not being always placed opposite each other on the midrib. The spadix is large, much branched and somewhat drooping, and has a small, soft and inconspicuous basal spathe. The fruit is small and round. This species grows in the same localities and in the same soil as the last, but is much more abundant. It appears to agree well with the _G. paniculigera_ of Martius.