pendant, divisions less numerous and broader; fruits small, borne
at one time and ripening together.
COCOPS.
COCOS NUCIFERA Linn. Sp. Pl. 1188. 1753
The cocoa-palm is largely confined to the neighborhood of the coast, but
is occasionally planted in small numbers in the interior districts,
though it generally does not thrive in such situations especially on the
north side of the island. On the drier southern slope of Puerto Rico,
which is avoided by the royal palm, the cocoanut seems to thrive better,
when it has once become established. Cocoanuts are mostly gathered while
still green, for the sake of the milk or, as it is there called, the
water (_coco de agua_) a popular beverage wherever obtainable. Although
the local consumption of nuts for this purpose is considerable it is
largely confined to the towns of the coast region. Thus it may be said
that in Puerto Rico the cocoa-palm affords a luxury rather than a
necessity, and that it is exceeded in economic importance by the royal
palm.
=Cocops= gen. nov.
In a valley on the road between Lares and San Sebastian several young
palms were noticed with leaves similar to the cocoanut, but smaller and
finer. Finally one mature specimen was found, with both trunk and leaves
strongly suggesting the cocoanut, but much smaller. The leaves are light
green, the leaflets in one plane, and the fibers separating from the
narrow base of the leaf. The fibers are few and flimsy, but like those
of the cocoanut and other South American species of _Cocos_. The palm
stood within a few feet of a small permanent brook, down which the seeds
had evidently been carried and there were several young palms along the
bank. The native living in an adjacent house could give us no name
except _palmilla_, and seemed to think that none was necessary since the
tree does not yield _yagua_ or anything else of use. Its early
extermination is therefore not unlikely.
In the absence of flowers and fruit[7] the relationships of the present
genus cannot be ascertained nor its validity satisfactorily established.
There seems, however, to be no reason for including the species in any
of the genera known from Puerto Rico or other parts of the West Indies,
and to associate it with Central and South American types would be a
still less warrantable procedure.
It is also believed that under the present circumstances the application
of a name is justified by convenience of reference and that this will
also assist in securing the attention of botanical collectors better
than a mere allusion to “an unknown palm which may be new.”
=Cocops rivalis= sp. nov.
In diameter the trunk appeared to be about midway between the palma de
sierra (_Acrista_) and the cocoanut, and had the short internodes of the
latter. The leaves, however, probably remain somewhat smaller than those
of _Acrista_ to which they might also be said to have a general
similarity, except at the base where their cocoid proclivities become
obvious. At a little distance _Cocops_ might be overlooked as _Acrista_,
while at shorter range it might be mistaken for a very depauperate
cocoanut. No species of _Cocos_ is, however, known to be native in the
West Indies except the doubtful _Cocos crispus_ H.B.K., from Cuba.
As a species _Cocops rivalis_ may prove to be similar to _Syagrus amara_
(Jacquin), which is reported as far north as Jamaica, but it seems to
have no true generic affinity with _Syagrus cocoides_ Martius, the South
American palm which is the type of its genus. According to Martius _S.
amara_ is 30 cm. in diameter, as large or larger than _Cocos nucifera_
and attains the height of from 20 to 35 meters; _Syagrus cocoides_, on
the other hand, is a small slender palm with a trunk 2.5–3 m. high and
5–7.5 cm. in diameter, and with foliage and habit resembling the slender
and diffuse South American species referred by Martius to _Cocos_, but
very different from _Cocos nucifera_ or from _Cocops_.
A leaf collected by Sintenis (no. 6061) near Camuy and coming from
Berlin labeled _Oreodoxa_, obviously did not originate with an arecoid
palm, but probably belongs with the present species. The region of Camuy
is but a few miles from Lares, but there is much extremely rough and
unoccupied country between, so that the danger of extermination appears
to be somewhat diminished.
Explanation of Plates
PLATE 43. _Thrincoma alta_, top of type specimen (no. 848).
PLATE 44.. _Thrincoma alta_, part of leaf and seeds, natural size.
PLATE 45.. _Thrinax Ponceana_, type (no. 1005).
PLATE 46.. _Acrista monticola_, type (no. 761) collected near
Adjuntas.
PLATE 47.. Fig. 1, _Aeria attenuata_. Fig. 2, _Cocops rivalis_ (left)
and _Roystonea Borinquena_ (right).
PLATE 48.. _Curima colophylla_, apex of flower-cluster and terminal
leaf-division, natural size. From type specimen (no. 878).
[Illustration:
PL. 43.
THRINCOMA ALTA
HELIOTYPE CO., BOSTON.
]
[Illustration:
PL. 44.
THRINCOMA ALTA
HELIOTYPE CO., BOSTON.
]
[Illustration:
PL. 45.
THRINAX PONCEANA
HELIOTYPE CO., BOSTON.
]
[Illustration:
PL. 46.
ACRISTA MONTICOLA
HELIOTYPE CO., BOSTON.
]
[Illustration:
PL. 47.
AERIA ATTENUATA COCOPS RIVALIS
]
[Illustration:
PL. 48.
CURIMA COLOPHYLLA
HELIOTYPE CO., BOSTON.
]
-----
Footnote 1:
This spelling and the adjective use of the name in this form are
editorial corrections.
Footnote 2:
Of numerous insects distinctive of the more southern palmetto the most
conspicuous is a longicorn beetle, _Agallissus chamaeropis_ Horn, the
larvae of which bore in the leaf-bases. The more common _Inodes_ is
inhabited by the allied genus _Zagymnus_, though another species of
_Agallissus_ is reported from Texas, where the native _Inodes_ is of
the smooth-trunked type.
Footnote 3:
=Inodes vestita= sp. nov. Trunk about 45 cm. thick at base, columnar
or tapering upward; surface rimose, the chinks commonly 5 mm. wide and
20 mm. apart. Leaf-bases torn into very numerous, fine, hair-like,
light reddish-brown fibers, a few much coarser than the others and
measuring from .6 to 1 mm. in diameter. The epidermis separates into
delicate membranous shreds, the surface of which is delicately pitted
and sparsely beset with brownish hairy-margined peltate scales.
Petiole 10 cm. or upward in width below near where it begins to split,
4.5 cm. wide at base of ligule; 3 m. long, concave above; blade 2.13
m. long, 2.50 m. wide, composed of about 60 segments, the apical
united more than two-thirds their length, the basal for less than
one-third; apical segments 4.5 cm. wide, deeply divided above, a long
fiber terminating both the longer and the shorter ribs.
As shown by the rimose bark this species affords a rather extreme
instance of the gradual enlargement of the trunk at a distance from the
growing point. Numerous leaf-bases remain attached to the trunk in the
greenhouse as they would not do in nature, since they are torn loose
except for a few fibers at the extreme sides.
Footnote 4:
Dr. Rose also kindly permits the use of the following field notes and
measurements showing that _Inodes Rosei_ is also a taller and more
slender tree than _I. Uresana_.
“Trees 6–12 or sometimes even 18 meters high, the long slender naked
trunk 15–20 cm. in diameter, crowned with a large cluster of leaves;
petioles 60 cm. or more long, flat on the face, pubescent, but
becoming glabrate; blade pale green, 8 cm. or more in width, strongly
keeled, more or less clothed beneath with brown scales on the large
veins; segments cleft to below the middle, 25 mm. or less wide;
inflorescence in large branching panicles 60 cm. or more long; fruit
spherical, 18 mm. in diameter, blackish or dark blue when mature.”
“A very common tree east of Rosario towards Mazatlan, also extending all
the way from Rosario to Acaponeta; especially common on the low hills,
and east of Rosario toward the mountains. This species is of
considerable economic importance, the trunks being used in building
fences, corrals and huts, while the leaves appear as thatch on a
majority of the houses of this region.”
Footnote 5:
Hist. Nat. Palmarum 2: 29.
Footnote 6:
Roemer and Schultes treated _Martinezia_ as a synonym of _Oreodoxa_.
Footnote 7:
That the fruits are small and are ripened at one season, as stated in
the key, was apparent from the size of the seedlings and from other
circumstances which accorded with the testimony of the man whose house
stood within a few rods of the largest tree.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES
1. Silently corrected obvious typographical errors and variations in
spelling.
2. Retained archaic, non-standard, and uncertain spellings as printed.
3. Re-indexed footnotes using numbers and collected together at the end
of the last chapter.
4. Enclosed italics font in _underscores_.