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
This new Florida species it gives me pleasure to name =Inodes Schwarzii=
in honor of its discoverer, in whose opinion of its distinctness I have
great confidence, although he makes no claims to botanical skill. It is
confined, as far as observed by Mr. Schwarz, to the coral reef formation
of southern Florida, the most accessible station visited being about one
mile south of Cocoanut Grove on the coral reef of the mainland side of
Biscayne Bay. In the vicinity of Snapper Creek, _Inodes Schwarzii_
extends to the Everglades where it is met by _I. Palmetto_. It was also
seen on the Perrine Grant about six miles from Cocoanut Grove; it seemed
not to occur about Miami but reappeared with the appropriate formation
and attendant fauna at New River, though again absent at Lake Worth. A
photograph secured by Mr. H. J. Webber (negative 164) on Taby Island
near Long Key shows an _Inodes_ with a naked trunk and a smaller crown
of straighter leaves than are normal for _I. palmetto_. Messrs. Swingle
and Webber had also remarked the distinctness of the smooth-trunked
palmetto of South Florida.
A third robust species of _Inodes_ is growing in the conservatory of the
Department of Agriculture labeled _Sabal umbraculifera_. It differs
conspicuously from _I. causiarum_ by the very large leaves and by the
great development of fine brown fibers which fill all the interstices
between the leaf-bases, and suggest the name =Inodes vestita=.[3]
Photographs of both the species have been prepared for the illustration
of comparative detailed descriptions.
_Sabal Mexicana_ has been reported from Cuba, and as it is described in
Sargent’s Silva (=10=: 43) as having a trunk “often 2½ feet in
diameter,” a robustness equalled only by the Puerto Rico trees, the
question of its identity was examined. It appears that the original of
_S. Mexicana_ came from southern Mexico and is a trunkless or very
slender, rather than a robust species, being only about 10 cm. in
diameter. The berry and the seed are described as closely similar to
those of _Sabal Adansoni_. Sargent’s _S. Mexicana_ from southern Texas,
in addition to the seven times greater thickness of the trunk, has a
seed nearly 1.25 cm. broad with a strongly prominent micropyle. There
can be little doubt that it is another new species, quite distinct from
that of Puerto Rico, similar only in the unusual diameter of the trunk,
which is furthermore described as bright reddish brown instead of white
or very light grayish as _Inodes causiarum_. In the view of the
apparently localized distribution of the species of this genus the name
=Inodes Texana= would be appropriate for that described and figured by
Sargent as noted above.
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