Editing Beccariophoenix madagascariensis (section)

===History:===
Dransfield (1988) writes, inter alia, that the species was
first described in
1915 by Jumelle and Perrier de la Bathie and, in the first
description of the palm, the authors commented that it was
extremely rare and on the verge of extinction. Of the first
collection very little herbarium material exists and there is
a meagre specimen in the herbarium at Paris and a duplicate
of it in the herbarium at Florence in Italy that Pertier had
sent to Beccari. The original description is quite detailed,
and some sort of picture can be built up of how the palm
looks from the notes on the habit. Pertier described how the
constant harvesting of young leaves for the manufacture of
hats was responsible for the decimation of the palm
(Dransfield, 1988).