58 



ARECACEAE. 



Order 6. ARECALES. 



Mostly trees with unbranched, erect trunks and a terminal bud, the large 

 leaves pinnately or palmately divided, forming a terminal crown, the small, 

 perfect or imperfect flowers usually panicled, sessile or pedicelled, the 

 panicle subtended by a spathe and usually bracted. Sepals and petals each 

 3, distinct or connate. Stamens commonly 6, sometimes 9-12; filaments 

 distinct >or connate below; anthers introrse; pistillate flowers sometimes 

 with staminodia. Ovary various, 1-celled, 3-celled or of 3 distinct carpels; 

 style usually short or wanting; ovules 1 in each carpel, anatropous. Fruit 

 drupaceous, 1-seeded. Seed with horny or cartilaginous endosperm, the 

 small embryo near the surface. 



Family 1. ARECACEAE Rchb. 



Palm Family. 



Characters of the order. About 150 genera and 1200 species, mosth 

 tropical. 



Leaves palmately cleft. 

 Petioles smooth. 



Style terminal in fruit. 



Endosperm smooth. 1. Thrinax. 



Endosperm grooved. 2. Coccothrinax. 



Style basal in fruit. 3. Sabal. 



Petioles spine-toothed. 4. Paurotis. 



Leaves pinnatelv divided. 



Fruit normally 2-3-lobed, not watery within. 5. Pseudophoenix. 



Fruit trigonous, large, watery within. 6. Cocos. 



1. THRINAX Sw. Prodr. 57. 1788. 



Unarmed, mostly tall and slender palms with nearly orbicular, palmately 

 cleft, long-petioled leaves, the narrow segments mostly 2-cleft at the apex, the 

 petioles flat, the inflorescence sheathed, paniculately branched, the small, perfect 

 flowers white. Calyx and corolla more or less united into a lobed or truncate 

 cup. Stamens mostly 6, the filaments connate at the base. Ovary 1-celled; 

 style terminal, slender; stigma flat or concave. Drupes small, globose. Seed 

 erect; endosperm horny, not grooved; embryo lateral. [Greek, fan.] About 12 

 species of Florida, the West Indies and Central America. Type species: 

 Thrinax parviflora Sw. 



Fruit essentially sessile. 1. T. microcarpa. 



Fruiting pedicels about as long as the fruit. 2. T. parviflora. 



1. Thrinax microcarpa Sargent, Gard. & For. 9: 162. 1896. 



Thrinax Iceyensis Sargent, Bot. Gaz. 27: 86. 1899. 



Thrinax lahamensis O. F. Cook, Mem. Torr. Club 12: 20. 1902. 



A tree, up to 12 m. high, with a trunk 2-2.5 dm. in diameter, usually much 

 smaller. Leaves 1.5 m. in diameter or less, deeply cleft into many narrow 

 segments, green and shining above, bluish or silvery-white beneath, the ligule 

 blunt or acute, 1.5-2.5 cm. wide ; inflorescence 2 m. long or less, as long as the 

 leaves or shorter; pedicels very short, disk-like; perianth about 3 mm. long; 



