constituted a segregate from Jacquin’s _oleracea_ and that the latter
name is available for the _Acrista_ of Martinique, whether identical or
not with that of Puerto Rico. But with a possible doubt between the
_Acrista_ and the _Roystonea_ there can scarcely be a justification for
the use of the same name for a third South American species or a fourth
West Indian.
As a means of decreasing the confusion it may be suggested that as
neither the generic nor the specific name of the Brazilian palm which
Martius called _Euterpe oleracea_ (Hist. Nat. Palm. 2: 29) is available,
the name =Catis Martiana= may be proposed, the generic designation
having reference to the drooping pinnae characteristic of the present
species and several of its South American relatives.
=Acrista monticola= sp. nov. Plate 44.
Trunk smooth, 10 to 15 m. high, perhaps taller, from 12 to 15 cm. in
diameter, with distinct ring-like leaf-scars and internodes, light
brownish or appearing grayish with bark lichens.
Leaves about 2 m. long, the pinnae lanceolate, equally spaced and
lying nearly horizontal, 55 cm. long and 4 cm. broad; the surface
light green on both sides, with very close parallel longitudinal
veinlets, but no visible cross veins. The sheathing bases are
considerably shorter and generally appear somewhat more robust than in
_Roystonea_. In protected situations the leaf-bases persist and the
margins shrivel up and expose a flimsy network of fibers.
Inflorescences appearing several close together; by the falling of the
leaves above them they are left several inches below the leaf-bases
before maturity is attained. Spathes fusiform, long, more slender and
pointed than in _Roystonea_. Spadix once-branched, 1 m. long, 6 cm. in
diameter at base, tapering gradually to the apex. Branches 23 cm. long
and less, the proximal branches longest; at first appressed to the
rachis, the branches are opened out and held stiffly erect by a fleshy
turgid cushion on the upper (distal) side of the base of each. The
branches of the rachis may thus be said to be hinged, and with
maturity the supporting cushion dries away and allows them to resume a
direction nearly parallel to that of the rachis.
The dried fruits of _Acrista_ are grayish brown in color and nearly
smooth or somewhat coriaceous in external texture; they measure 11 or 12
mm. in length and are nearly as wide, being slightly oboval in shape.
The outer wall is thin and brittle and covers a more or less distinct
thin layer of amorphous brownish material probably representing the pulp
of the fresh fruit; in the dry state this may adhere either to the outer
wall or to the fibers next inside. Near the base these fibers are
simple, pointed and vertical; about half way up they divide and
anastomose and are, as it were, felted and cemented together to form an
oval sac open below and closed above. The outer fibers are much coarser
than the inner and there are sometimes suggestions of three layers
separated by a dark-brown friable material. A few of the delicate inner
fibers are adnate to the surface of the seed which is otherwise free
from its fibrous covering.
Seed 8.5 mm. by 8 mm., slightly lighter in color than the outside of the
fruit. Surface slightly uneven with obscure veinlike ridges and
impressions of the fibers of the outer covering. The kernel is white,
hard and bony, and deeply ruminate, though this is not apparent from the
outside. The channels are very narrow and often radial and straight;
they penetrate 3 mm. or less. Embryo directly basal; hilum lateral,
somewhat below the level of the stigma; a short raphe extends about half
way to the embryo.
Family COCACEAE
The cocoid palms are a distinctly American group, the African oil-palm,
_Elaeis Guineensis_ and the cocoanut being the only outliers of the
family which have been supposed to be indigenous in the Old World. South
America is the center of distribution and is the home of a large
proportion of the two hundred or more species. Only five genera reach
Puerto Rico, and one of these, _Cocos_, was probably not a native of the
island.
Key to the Subfamilies of Cocaceae
Trunks, stems, and midribs beset with sharp spines; seeds foraminate
at or above the middle.
Subfamily BACTRIDINAE.
Trunks and other parts unarmed; seeds foraminate at base.
Subfamily COCINAE.
Subfamily BACTRIDINAE
Some of the numerous South American representatives of this group are
nearly smooth, but the three genera known from Puerto Rico have the
trunks, leaf-bases, midribs and inflorescences beset with sharp black
spines, and are thus readily recognizable.
Key to the Genera of Bactridinae
Trunk small, cespitose; leaves separated by long internodes; foramina
of seeds apical.
BACTRIS.
Trunk medium or large, solitary; leaves crowded together at the
summit; foramina peripheral.
Trunk slender; leaf-divisions broad, praemorse-truncate;
pistillate and staminate flowers intermixed on the
inflorescence; exocarp fleshy.
CURIMA.
Trunk robust; leaf-divisions narrow, sharp-pointed; pistillate
flowers below and separate from the staminate; exocarp
fibrous.
ACROCOMIA.
BACTRIS Jacquin, Stirp. Am. 279. _pl. 271._ 1763
The type of this genus, _Bactris minor_ Jacquin, described from the
vicinity of Carthagena, Colombia, is a small spiny palm with creeping
rootstocks. The upright trunks are about an inch thick and twelve feet
high, with long spiny internodes. The fruits are fleshy, purple, and
about the size of a cherry. Several species of _Bactris_ are known from
the West Indies though the generic name has doubtless been applied
rather loosely to all the small spiny cocoid palms.
The two following species of _Bactris_ from Puerto Rico described by
Martius several decades ago seem not to have been secured by recent
collectors unless it be true, as suggested below, that one of them, the
simple-leaved _B. acanthophylla_ applies to a young _Curima_. Of _B.
Pavoniana_ the narrowly grass-like leaf-divisions would be sufficiently
characteristic to separate it at once from all other palms known from
Puerto Rico.
BACTRIS ACANTHOPHYLLA Martius, Palm. Orbign. 67
“Trunk low, spiny; frond simple, the petiole spiny; blade lanceolate in
young plants, oblong in the adult, cuneate at the base and bifid at
apex, the margin unequally erose, unarmed; rachis and primary veins
spiny on both sides; spines bristle-like, narrowed at base, those of the
petiole black, those of the blades fuscous.”
“In the western part of the island of Puerto Rico, near the village of
Yrurena, in swampy places on the margins of aboriginal forests at an
altitude of 400 feet; collected by Wylder, 1827.” (Martius Hist. Palm.
=3=: 281.)
A specimen to which the above diagnosis would not be inapplicable was
collected by Sintenis in the mountain forests near Maricao (no. 484). It
was distributed from Berlin as a _Martinezia_, together with two other
very young plants and a seed to which one of these was attached.
The seed evidently did not come from a cocoid palm but together with the
young seedlings may belong to _Acrista_. The large spiny plant is
probably a young specimen of _Curima_, and should these suggestions
prove to be correct the specific name _acanthophylla_ must be
transferred to this genus though whether it will replace _colophylla_ or
not is not to be determined until it can be ascertained that the Maricao
species is the same as that here described from Bayamon.
BACTRIS PAVONIANA Martius, Palm. Orbign. 70
“Frond pinnate, rachis with rather long spines and black bristles:
linear acuminate, about equally distant, the terminal united,
setose-ciliate, glaucous below and with a sparse whitish down.”
“Puerto Rico; Pavon.” (Martius, Hist. Pal. =3=: 282.)
Grisebach has reported this species from Antigua and has redescribed it
as follows, presumably from the Antigua specimens.
“‘Trunk low’; _leaves pinnatisect: segments numerous, grass-like,
linear-acuminate_ or the uppermost broader by cohesion, glaucous and
minutely puberulous or glabrescent beneath, approximate, subequidistant,
reduplicate at the base: _rachis armed with very long black prickles_
and rare bristles, keeled above.—Flowers unknown; leaf segments (in our
specimens, which are cut off, perhaps about the middle of the rachis)
more than 30–jugal, 3‴–6‴ distant, 12″–8″ long, 4‴–2‴ broad, superior
gradually shorter, the uppermost cohering ones sometimes 6‴–8‴ broad:
prickles scattered or clustered, slender, the greatest 2″ long. Hab.
Antigua: _Wullschl._, Blubber valley; [Portorico].” (Grisebach, Fl.
Brit. W. I., 520. 1864.)
=Curima= gen. nov.
Trunk rather slender, internodes armed with scattered slender spines.
Leaves and inflorescence also spiny, especially on the proximal parts.
Pinnae numerous, strap-shaped, praemorse-truncate, imperfectly
separated near the ends of the leaves. Inflorescence rather slender,
once-branched; pistillate flowers mostly located near the bases of the
branches. Fruit drupaceous, exocarp fleshy, not fibrous; foramina
peripheral.
A palm related to _Acrocomia_ and to the genera commonly grouped under
the name _Martinezia_, to which _Aiphanes_ and _Marara_ are generally
referred as synonyms. Reasons why none of these names appears available
for the Puerto Rico species are given below. The characters of the
fruit, with foramina near the middle, seem to indicate that _Curima_ is
not remotely related to _Acrocomia_, from which it differs superficially
in the more slender habit, the truncate or praemorse leaves and the very
long and lax inflorescence.
=Curima colophylla= sp. nov. Plate 46.
The solitary trunk rises from a mass of spiny roots somewhat smaller
than those of the llume palm (_Aeria_). Diameter of trunk from 1–1.5
cm., often slightly thinner near the ground, though showing no such
tendency to bulge as appears in _Roystonea_, _Aeria_ and _Acrocomia_.
The surface of the internodes is rather sparingly provided with
needle-like spines smaller and more slender than those of _Acrocomia_.
On old trunks the spines are often more or less completely absent.
Leaves 2.13–2.5 m. long, with from 30 to 40 pairs of strap-shaped
praemorse-truncate divisions shorter and broader as the end of the leaf
is approached, and with a terminal undivided area several inches wide.
There is no apparent tendency toward the arrangement of the
leaf-divisions in clusters as in _Martinezia caryotaefolia_ and other
allied species.
The base, rachis, midribs and even the surfaces of the pinnae are beset
with coarse black or deep red spines which are closely appressed when
young and become erect as soon as the surfaces are exposed, all the
parts except the spines and the upper surfaces of the leaf-division
being covered at first with a light grayish or brownish scurfy coating
which gradually disappears.
The inner spathe is narrowly fusiform and about 1 m. long. It splits to
the level of the outer spathe revealing the spadix and its extremely
spiny peduncle. The flowers are greenish cream colored in mass, paler
and not so yellow as in _Acrocomia_. The pistillate flowers are
relatively very few and located near the base of the simple branches.
The cherry-like fruits are dull orange or brick red with rather dry
fleshy or oily exocarp having a rather mealy though distinctly acid
flavor, but no really unpleasant taste. This fleshy covering is only
very slightly fibrous, and that near the base; the seeds fall off very
easily sometimes leaving the base of the exocarp attached to the
fruiting branch. The nut is about 12 mm. in greatest or transverse
diameter and about 10 mm. high, while the fresh fruit is 14–16 mm.
through and 12 or 13 mm. thick. The surface is deeply and irregularly
pitted and marked with three radially fibrous striate foveolae.
It is perhaps too soon to assert that there is only one species of the
present genus in Puerto Rico. The trees certainly differ considerably in
size though not more than the cocoanut and others. There is also a
noticeable difference in the abundance of spines. Such apparent
variability may, however, be due to age, the older trees tending to
become less densely beset with the brittle black spines which are often
conspicuous on young specimens.
The specimens (no. 878) and photographs on which this genus and species
were based were secured on the limestone hills near the wagon road
between Bayamon and Toa Baja where the present palm is not uncommon.
_Curima_ appeared to be especially abundant about Bayamon but is
probably rather generally distributed in the limestone hills of the
island, perhaps also on other soils. A few trees were seen along the
road between Utuado and Lares, and numerous others between Isolina and
Manati. Sintenis collected specimens of what is apparently the same
species near Juncos and Hato Grande, and at Maricao young specimens
discussed under _Bactris acanthophylla_.
As far as Puerto Rico is concerned, this palm is very easily recognized
by means of the curiously truncate leaf-divisions, the outer margins of
which appear as though accidentally injured or eaten away by
caterpillars. This feature is, however, shared with numerous other West
Indian and South American palms, though apparently only one, the
so-called _grigri_ palm of Martinique can be referred to the present
genus with confidence. For this the name =Curima corallina= (_Martinezia
corallina_ Martius, Hist. Nat. Palm. 3: 284) appears to be correct,
although Martius places Gaertner’s much older _Bactris minima_ as a
synonym for his species. Gaertner, however, was making a second attempt
at renaming Jacquin’s _Bactris minor_, having previously misplaced that
name in connection with a West Indian _Acrocomia_, probably the same to
which Jacquin had already supplied the name _Cocos aculeatus_. Thus it
is possible to treat _Bactris minima_ Gaertner as a synonym of _Bactris
minor_ Jacquin and the restoration of Gaertner’s inappropriate name for
the _Curima_ is thus avoided.
With this preliminary description we may return to the consideration of
the generic names _Martinezia_, _Aiphanes_ and _Marara_ which other
writers have applied to relatives of the present palm or treated as
synonyms. _Martinezia_ was described by Ruiz and Pavon (Prodr. Flor.
Per. et Chil. 148. 1794) for five Peruvian palms, but it was amended by
Martius (Hist. Nat. Palm. =3=: 283) by the removal of all the original
species and the substitution of a new set. Of the original species
studied by Ruiz and Pavon only two, _M. ciliata_ and _M. abrupta_ were
mentioned in connection with the original description of the genus, and
this because they offered exceptions to the generic characters. If these
were to be excluded for this reason from those among which the type is
to be sought, the name _Martinezia_ must go with the subsequently
published _M. ensiformis_, now referred to _Euterpe_[6] or with _M.
lanceolata_ and _M. linearis_, now placed in _Chamaedorea_. If we hold
to the first species, _M. ciliata_, _Martinezia_ is probably a synonym
of _Bactris_. The second species, _M. abrupta_, has escaped Martius and
the Index Kewensis, in which a sixth name _M. interrupta_ is the only
one by Ruiz and Pavon now credited as being a genuine _Martinezia_. Thus
by the method of elimination _Martinezia_ would according to current
classification replace _Chamaedorea_ while by the method of types it
would stand as a synonym of _Bactris_.
The genus _Aiphanes_ was established by Willdenow on _Aiphanes
aculeata_, a spiny palm from the mountains about Caracas. The trunk is
said to be erect, ten meters high, subcylindrical and very spiny. The
leaves are about 1.6 m. long, with four pairs of remote, broad, cuneate,
praemorse pinnae, strongly whitish pubescent on the under side; the
petiole is also beset with spines. Spathe acuminate at both ends,
aculeate on the outside, smooth within, opening longitudinally; spadix
4.5 dm. long, composed of cylindrical spikes placed opposite. Flowers
hermaphrodite; calyx trifid, the divisions acute; petals acuminate;
filaments 6, subulate, anthers rounded, style as long as the stamens,
stigma trifid; drupe globose, the fleshy farinaceous pulp rather
tasteless, though edible; nut hard, of the size of a musket ball,
unilocular, black, furrowed with a large number of grayish grooves, of
which three are always much larger than the others. The kernel is white,
very sweet, and very good to eat. _Aiphanes_ grows in the ravines and
forests of the high mountains of the district of Caucagua, province of
Caracas, Venezuela and requires a fertile, somewhat moist soil. It
flowers and fruits in July.
From the above it appears that _Aiphanes_ is a genus quite different
from _Curima_, approaching some of the South American species of
_Bactris_ much more closely than it resembles the Puerto Rico tree.
The genus _Marara_ was based by Karsten (Linnaea, =28=: 389) on _M.
bicuspidata_ from Colombia, a cespitose palm having a trunk 7 meters
high and 10 cm. in diameter, clothed with black spines 6 to 8 mm. long.
The leaves are 125 cm. long with from 60 to 80 pairs of cuneate pinnules
which measure 3 dm. in length and 15 cm. in width, and are clustered in
sixes or eights. This appears to be a very extreme development of the
leaf-arrangement seen in the cultivated palm commonly called _Martinezia
caryotaefolia_ where the leaflets are distinctly clustered, but by no
means so crowded as must be the case when on the side of a leaf 125 cm.
long are leaflets with an aggregate width of 10–13 m.
The palm commonly cultivated in conservatories as _Martinezia
caryotaefolia_ is obviously allied to _Curima_, perhaps more closely
than to either _Aiphanes_ or _Marara_, but in addition to the clustered
pinnules it has a more slender habit, especially apparent in the long
internodes and the more lax inflorescence. This difference in habit is
also evidently correlated with the fact that the leaf-bases do not
become deeply gibbous and obliquely inclined from the trunk as in
_Curima_ but remain closely sheathing. Moreover, the upper side of the
leaf-stalk which in the Puerto Rico palm is deeply channeled and has
lateral corners sharp or torn into fibers nearly to the insertion of the
lowest pinnae is in the conservatory species nearly cylindrical for a
long distance below the pinnae, and has long spines on the upper side as
well as on the lower. It is as though the ligule were located in
_Curima_ near the insertion of the lowest pinnae while in the other form
it remains close to the trunk, with a cylindrical section intercalated
to reach to where the pinnae begin. Apparently we are dealing with still
another generic group for which the name =Tilmia= would not be
inappropriate in allusion to the shorn and disheveled appearance which
it shares with _Curima_. The species studied are =Tilmia caryotaefolia=
(_Martinezia caryotaefolia_ H.B.K. Nov. Gen. et Sp. =I=: 305. _pl. 699_)
in the National Botanic Garden and =T. disticha= (_Martinezia disticha_
Linden, Cat. 32. 1875).
The seeds of _Tilma caryotaefolia_ are like those of _Curima_, but
considerably larger, rounder, and much smoother. The foramina are
peripheral, but are much smaller and more shallow, those of _Curima_
being surrounded, as it were, by a prominent rim which adds somewhat to
the apparent width of the seed. In both genera the nuts are
unsymmetrical, the side which has the largest foramen being distinctly
larger than the others and in _Curima_ the irregularly pitted sculpture
is coarser.
ACROCOMIA Martius, Hist. Nat. Palm. =2=: 66
A genus of palms distributed through tropical America from Mexico to
Cuba and Paraguay. All the species are of stocky, compact growth, with a
dense crown of numerous leaves. The trunk and the leaf-stalks are
usually armed with strong, sharp spines, sometimes several inches long.
Although totally different on close inspection this genus has in Puerto
Rico a superficial resemblance to the royal palm, which often deceives
travelers. The similarity lies mostly in the two facts that both the
royal and corozo palms are more robust and stiffly erect than the
cocoanut, and that the leaf-divisions instead of lying horizontal and in
one plane are tilted at different angles to the midrib, thus giving the
foliage seen in the mass a somewhat unkempt appearance in comparison
with the cocoanut.
In distinguishing the corozo palm from the royal palm when seen at a
distance so great that the spines of the one and the columnar green
leaf-sheaths of the other can not be seen, recourse may be had to the
following facts. The leaf crown of the corozo palm is much rounder,
thicker and more compact than that of the royal palm, since it contains
many more leaves, and these persist much longer. The royal palm can also
be known by the unopened leaves which project straight upward like
flag-poles or lightning-rods, while in _Acrocomia_ the leaves open as
they are pushed out and seldom offer a suggestion of the spire-like
effect.
=Acrocomia media= sp. nov.
Trunk 20–30 cm. in diameter near the base, thickened above to 50 cm.
or less; height commonly about 6–8 m. rarely exceeding 10 m. Surface
of trunk with slight annular impressions. Internodes armed with
slender black spines, the larger 10–15 cm. long, mostly confined to
the lower half of the internodes. Fruit green, becoming yellowish, the
husk firmly fibrous, inedible; about 35 mm. in diameter, nearly
spherical in shape, with a distinct apical papilla. Kernel 25 mm. wide
by 22 mm. long; width of the cavity 18 mm. The type specimen was
collected near Ponce (photograph no. 255).
The _Acrocomia_ of Puerto Rico seems to differ from _A. aculeata_
(Jacquin) in its robust habit and somewhat bulging trunk, while it is
less stout and less swollen than _A. fusiformis_ (Swartz). The name
_Acrocomia lasiospatha_, although used by Martius and Grisebach has no
warrant for supplanting _fusiformis_ of Swartz, which must be preferred
for the Jamaica species with the thick, swollen trunk.
In Jamaica there seem to be at least two species of _Acrocomia_, the
larger of which is called the “great macaw” palm, and is described as
having a fusiform trunk as thick as a man’s body. What is presumably the
same species occurs in Cuba as shown by a photograph from the vicinity
of La Gloria on the north coast. The greatest diameter of the trunk is
three or four times the thickness near the base. In Puerto Rico no trees
approximating these proportions were observed, the greatest amount of
swelling probably not reaching twice the diameter below. According to
Maza _Acrocomia lasiospatha_ grows wild in Cuba and is known under the
name “coroja de Jamaica.” Swartz described his _Cocos fusiformis_ on the
supposition that it was distinct from the _Cocos aculeatus_ of Jacquin,
from Martinique, by reason of the fusiform trunk. The species was,
nevertheless, reduced by Martius to his South American _Acrocomia
sclerocarpa_, perhaps because the spathe is said to be spiny, a
character probably subject to great variation.
Jacquin’s name _Acrocomia aculeata_ (1763) must, it seems, be used for
the West Indian palm placed by Martius under his _A. sclerocarpa_, which
is to be maintained, if at all, as a South American species. Jacquin
declares that the habit of his tree is similar to that of _Cocos
nucifera_ and _Cocos amara_ (_Syagrus_), and his figure shows a tall
straight trunk tapering slightly upward, with no tendency to bulge. The
spines of the trunk are few and the midribs are aculeate on both sides.
The drawing of the fruit is 37 mm. long by 41 mm. wide and has a broad
conic papilla at apex. As indicated above, such a tree was not noticed
in Puerto Rico where all the corozo palms are distinctly, though
slightly, thicker some distance above the base, though apparently never
equaling _A. fusiformis_ in this respect.
Subfamily COCINAE
Key to the Genera of Cocinae
Trunk distinctly ringed, rising from an inclined swollen base; leaves
numerous, many of the lower drooping or pendant, the divisions
many and narrow; fruits very large, borne continuously.
COCOS.