Palms of Puerto Rico 501 



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-trun- 

 cate, imperfectly separated near the ends of the leaves. Inflo- 

 rescence rather slender, once-branched ; pistillate flowers mostly 

 located near the bases of the branches. Fruit drupaceous, exo- 

 carp fleshy, not fibrous ; foramina peripheral. 



A palm related to Acrocomia and to the genera commonly 

 grouped under the name Martinczia, 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 



Plate 46 



The solitary trunk rises from a mass of spiny roots somewhat 

 smaller than those of the Hume 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 Roystonca, 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 Martinczia 



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. 



