A synopsis of the palms of Puerto RicoCook, O. F. (Orator Fuller)
Science
A synopsis of the palms of Puerto Rico
Cook, O. F. (Orator Fuller)
Palms -- Puerto Rico
The lower surface is clothed with a satiny, appressed grayish pubescence
somewhat less pronounced than that of _Thrincoma alta_. As in that
species the veinules are of equal size, but they are more widely
separated, and the wavy and usually somewhat oblique transverse veinules
are easily distinguishable on both sides of the dried leaf. There are
also slight traces of wax on the ligule and in the grooves of the upper
surface. The median divisions are united for distinctly more than
one-third their length.
The spathes and spadix are distinctly larger than those of _Thrincoma
alta_, but the fruits are, unfortunately, quite immature and contain
only shriveled seeds. The pedicels of the fruits are 2–4 mm. long and
bear, usually near the middle, a very slender bract 1–2 mm. long.
This species is apparently distinct from _Thringis laxa_ in the larger
size and firmer texture of the leaves. It differs in the longer pedicels
of the fruits, with their longer and more slender bracts, from a
specimen belonging to the New York Botanical Garden and supposed to have
been collected by Mr. A. A. Heller, though the number (3278) indicates
that it may belong to the Sintenis series.
This consists of a single, short, once-branched inflorescence arising
from two fibrous spathes. The fruits are about 4 mm. in diameter, nearly
spherical, distinctly apiculate, deep reddish brown in color and borne
on pedicels 2–3 mm. long, with a bract 1 mm. long or less at or below
the middle. The seeds are 2–2.5 mm. in diameter; the surface is smooth
and shining and light brown in color; general shape spherical but with
deep folds and convolutions.
No leaves are known in connection with this specimen, and the exact
locality is also in doubt. Mr. Heller believes, however, that the
inflorescence came from a small _Thrinax_-like palm growing in the
limestone hills a few miles to the east of San Juan.
Family ARECACEAE
A large family, with abundant genera in the tropics of America and Asia,
but absent from tropical Africa. The Puerto Rico representatives may be
recognized very easily by the fact that the leaf crown is supported upon
a column of the sheathing bases, a character of which the royal palm
furnishes a conspicuous and ever-present example. Of the remaining
genera, one, the betel palm of the East Indies is sparingly introduced
about towns in the western part of the island and may be recognized at a
glance by reason of the extremely dark green of its foliage. The other
two genera are native palms confined to uncultivated areas and thus
seldom seen at close range from traveled roads. The mountain palm,
_Acrista_, covers the summits of many of the mountains of the island,
but _Aeria_ seems to be confined to the range of high limestone crags
which skirt the northern coast of the island between Bayamon and
Arecibo.
Key to the Genera of Arecaceae
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