526 Cook : A Synopsis of the 



diagnostic characters, for which we have no parallels in other 

 groups of plants. 



A compensating advantage may be drawn, however, from the 

 definite and often very limited geographical distribution of the 

 species of palms. Thus, although Puerto Rico is a relatively 

 small island, several of the indigenous palms have apparently 

 ranged in nature over but a small part of it, and a locality defi- 

 nitely indicated would often go further toward establishing the 

 identity of a species than much of the descriptive matter prepared 

 for this purpose. For the present, at least, the geographical idea 

 should be kept uppermost in systematic studies of the palms, since 

 it is generally much easier and far more logical to extend the limits 

 of supposed distribution and unite supposed species, than to cope 

 with the confusion caused by the miscellaneous reporting of species 

 far outside their natural ranges. 



From the popular standpoint another serious inconvenience of 

 the systematic literature of palms arises from the fact that it is 

 based so largely on floral characters that even the botanical trav- 

 eler might need to wait months for the blossoms and then climb the 



I 



trees or cut them down before being able to secure a clue to botan- 

 ical names or relationships. But however necessary refinements of 

 formal characters may be in presenting classifications or mono- 

 graphs of large groups, more obvious differences may still be 

 adequate for distinguishing between the species, genera and fam- 

 ilies represented in a limited flora like that of Puerto Rico. In 

 the present paper use is made therefore of obvious external differ- 

 ences, not only because of the greater convenience and utility of 

 such facts in field study but also in the belief that with the palms, 

 at least, the vegetative, habital and ecological features are often 

 quite as important for diagnostic purposes as the more technical and 

 conventionalized characters to which botanists are accustomed in 

 dealing with other natural orders. 



As will be apparent from some of the following systematic notes, 

 the generic nomenclature of the palms is in a condition closely 

 comparable to that now known to obtain among the myxomycetes, 

 fungi, hepaticae and ferns. Possibly the palms have suffered more 

 from neglect and carelessness than other groups of flowering plants, 

 but it can no longer be maintained that the practical defects of 



