558 Cook : A Synopsis of the 



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 halfway 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 out- 

 side 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, Elacis 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 tlie Subfamilies of Cocaceae 



Trunks, stems, and midribs beset with sharp spines ; seeds foraminate at or above the 



Subfamily BactridiNAE. 



middle. 

 Trunks and other parts unarmed ; seeds foraminate at base. Subfamily Cucinae 



