Palms of Puerto Rico 533 



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

 Bay. In the vicinity of Snapper Creek, Inodcs 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 /nodes 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 Inodes is growing in the conserva- 

 tory of the Department of Agriculture labeled Sabal umbraculifera. 

 It differs conspicuously from /. causiarum 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 5". 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 1 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 

 in 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 cm. 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 leaf- 

 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. 



