ROYAL PALM (Roysignea regia, Cook). 80 to 100 feet. Tall trunk, tapering both ways from the middle, abruptly enlarged at base, and crowned with an abundant mass of foliage. Bark smooth, pale gray, tinged with orange, marked with dark blotches; greenish toward the top. Wood pale brown, spongy inside the dark, hard-fibred rind. Used for piles of wharves. Rind cut into canes. Leaves 10 to 12 feet long, feather-like, the narrow divisions 2 to 3 feet long, dark green, tapering to hairy fringed tips. Flowers moncecious, in 3-flowered clusters,
on branched stalk about e feet long, that rise below the base of the leafy crown; January and February; staminate larger than pistillate. Fruit blue, elongate, berry-like, inch long, with single, large seed. Dist.: Shores and hummock land in river swamps of southern Florida. Common in West Indies and Central America. Much planted on avenues in tropical cities; also as an ornamental in parks and private grounds.