In the western end of the island the betel palm of the Malay region has been sparingly introduced, though the fact does not seem to have been reported hitherto. A few were seen in gardens about Mayaguez and others in and near San Sebastian. So far as we were able to learn, the people do not know the name or nature of this introduced species which is apparently planted only as an ornament or a curiosity. The form is not unpleasing, but the extremely deep, sombre green of the foliage seems almost unnatural and imparts a suggestion of artificiality. Only photographs and fruits of _Areca_ were secured at San Sebastian, but Puerto Rico specimens collected by Sintenis (no 5749) at Aguadilla have already been distributed from the Berlin Botanical Garden with the label “Palma Spec. Subtrib. Attaleae.” ROYSTONEA Cook, Science, II. =12=: 479. 1900 _Oreodoxa_ Martius and more recent authors, not Willdenow. The history of the generic name _Oreodoxa_ shows that botanical writers of the last few decades have been in error in removing the two original species and applying it to another series of similar but not closely related forms. To avoid further confusion with reference to a name which by reason of the conspicuous character of the trees has wide use in popular literature it seems desirable to add the following notes on the genus _Oreodoxa_ as originally established by Willdenow in the Memoires de l’Academie Royale, Berlin, 1804, a publication which seems to have been consulted very seldom, even by writers on palms. Spathe universal, univalvate; spadix ramose, perianth monophyllous, tripartite below, the divisions ovate, acute, concave; petals ovate, acuminate, concave. Filaments six, of the length of the corolla; anthers oblong, acute. Style tripartite, shorter than the filaments, stigma acute. Ovule, drupe, and seed globose; drupe succulent, but slightly fibrous; seed single, cartilaginous, nearly smooth, marked with a longitudinal sulcus. In the discussion subsequent to the statement of the above characters, _Oreodoxa_ is said to be distinct from _Bactris_ in the tripartite style and in the absence of the “ordinary three impressions”; it is distinguished from _Areca_, then supposed to include _Euterpe_ and species now generally placed in _Oreodoxa_, in the single spathe, the triple style and the hermaphrodite flowers.