Palms of Puerto Rico 533 



coanut Grove on the coral reef of the mainland side of Biscayne 

 Bay. In the vicinity of Snapper Creek, /nodes Schwarzii extends 

 to the Everglades where it is met by /. 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 ap- 

 propriate formation and attendant fauna at New River, thouhg 

 again absent at Lake Worth. A photograph secured by Mr. H. 

 J. Webber (negative 164) on Taby Island near Long Key shows 

 an modes with a naked trunk and a smaller crown of straighter 

 leaves than are normal for /. palmetto. Messrs. Swingle and 

 Webber had also remarked the distinctness of the smooth-trunked 

 palmetto of South Florida. 



A third robust species of /nodes is growing in the conserva- 

 tory of the Department of Agriculture labeled Sabal umbraetilifera. 

 It differs conspicuously from /. causianim 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.* 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 de- 

 scribed in Sargent's Silva (10 : 43) as having a trunk " often 2^ 

 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 de- 



* 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 I 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 

 m 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 C m. 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 leal 

 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. 



