Palms of Puerto Rico 551 



ences Oreodoxa acuminata occupies quite a different place in nature 

 from that of the more thoroughly tropical species commonly 

 referred to that genus, and the stoloniferous habit also indicates a 

 different ecology. 



The second of the original species of Oreodoxa is now referred 

 to the genus Catoblastus. It is a somewhat smaller tree from 12 

 to 1 5 metres high, with a generally similar habit, and is also stolo- 

 niferous, but the pinnae are broad, cuneiform and praemorse, or 

 irregularly truncate as in the species generally referred to Martin- 

 ezia. The drupaceous fruit is grayish and the pulp is only slightly 

 succulent ; seed the size of a pigeon's egg, its exterior brown, 

 marbled with numerous veins. In the characters of the spathe 

 the arrangement of the fruit and the edible quality of the heart of 

 the leaf-cluster, as well as in the formation of lateral off-shoot this 

 species is said to be similar to the first. 



Botanists are not yet agreed upon the methods of dealing with 

 complications like the present in regard to the names of plants, 

 but it appears certain that those who do not recognize Oreodoxa 

 as a genus distinct from those admitted in the more recent works 

 on palms must associate it either with Euterpe or Catoblastus. 

 The latter mame it would in that case replace, being much older. 

 Moreover, unless we are prepared to disregard Willdenow's state- 

 ments concerning the stoloniferous trunk, the simple spathe and 

 the hermaphrodite flowers, to say nothing of many minor points 

 of circumstantial evidence, there is no scientific warrant for apply- 

 ing the name Oreodoxa to the noble Antillean species with which 

 it has been universally associated. 



The dried specimens which Willdenow studied were supple- 

 mented by notes of field observation by a court gardener, who 

 was evidently also a botanist of some experience, to whom Will- 

 denow refers as his "friend." The living colors are described 

 with considerable detail throughout the entire paper, which ren- 

 ders noteworthy the fact that the spathes are stated to be ciner- 

 eous. This is in agreement with species of Euterpe which have 

 membranous spathes, but indicates a wide difference from the 

 West Indian trees where the spathes are thick and fleshy and re- 

 main vivid green until they open and fall away. 



The name Roystouca has been given to this ornament of the 



