Palms of Puerto Rico 559 



Subfamily Bactridinae 



Some of the numerous South American representatives of this 

 group are nearly smooth, but the three genera known from Puerto 

 Rico have the trunks, leaf-bases, midribs and inflorescences beset 

 with sharp black spines, and are thus readily recognizable. 



Key to tlie Genera of Bactridinae 



Trunk small, cespitose ; leaves separated by long internodes ; foramina of seeds 



apical. Bactris. 



Trunk medium or large, solitary ; leaves crowded together at the summit ; foramina 

 peripheral. 

 Trunk slender ; leaf-divisions broad, praemorse-truncate ; pistillate and staminate 



flowers^intermixed on the inflorescence ; exocarp fleshy. CURIMA. 



Trunk robust ; leaf-divisions narrow, sharp-pointed ; pistillate flowers below and 

 separate from the staminate ; exocarp fibrous. Acrocomia. 



BACTRIS Jacquin, Stirp. Am. 279. pi. 271. 1763 



The type of this genus, Bactris minor Jacquin, described from 

 the vicinity of Carthagena, Colombia, is a small spiny palm with 

 creeping rootstocks. The upright trunks are about an inch thick 

 and twelve feet high, with long spiny internodes. The fruits are 

 fleshy, purple, and about the size of a cherry. Several species of 

 Bactris are known from the West Indies though the generic name 

 has doubtless been applied rather loosely to all the small spiny 

 cocoid palms. 



The two following species of Bactris from Puerto Rico described 

 by Martius several decades ago seem not to have been secured by 

 recent collectors unless it be true, as suggested below, that one of 

 them, the simple-leaved B. acantliophylla applies to a young 

 Curima. Of B. Pavoniana the narrowly grass-like leaf-divisions 

 would be sufficiently characteristic to separate it at once from all 

 other palms known from Puerto Rico. 



Bactris acanthophylla Martius, Palm. Orbign. 67 



" Trunk low, spiny ; frond simple, the petiole spiny ; blade 

 lanceolate in young plants, oblong in the adult, cuneate at the 

 base and bifid at apex, the margin unequally erose, unarmed ; 

 rachis and primary veins spiny on both sides ; spines bristle-like, 

 narrowed at base, those of the petiole black, those of the blades 

 fuscous." 



