NO. 7 A NEW PALM FROM COCOS ISLAND COOK O, 



gradual development of the organic world. From being concerned pri- 

 marily with the fixing of names, classification has widened to a study 

 of the courses of development, and is no longer limited to definitions 

 or to logical analysis of the characters originally used in distinguish- 

 ing groups, but calls for comparative study of any and all differences 

 to the end of discovering and formulating new characters that mark 

 the courses of development and the relationships of the groups to each 

 other. The facts of development and adaptation determine the char- 

 acters to be defined and the form of statements needed to present the 

 differences clearly. 



Floral characters are less specialized among the palms than in many 

 other groups, but stages of specialization are marked as definitely by 

 other features. The inflorescences and the floral envelopes, instead of 

 being enlarged and expanded as in many of the groups that are polli- 

 nated by insects, have been greatly reduced and simplified in many of 

 the palms, in order to be covered more effectively during the early 

 stages of development. The usual protective functions of the floral 

 envelopes in other groups of plants often are assumed among the 

 palms by the spathes, or even by the leaf-sheaths, thus avoiding any 

 exposure of the tender budding tissues to the sun or to the wind, 

 or to insect injuries. Inflorescences have been simplified and floral 

 envelopes have been reduced to rudimentary organs in many of the 

 palms. That different courses of specialization have been followed 

 in the various groups, though all in the direction of protecting the 

 flowers, is evidence of the adaptive values of such specializations. 



Characters framed for taxonomic use are no longer to be considered 

 as permanent definitions, seeing that supposedly diagnostic differences 

 may lose their significance and that changes in descriptions often 

 become necessary when closer relatives are discovered and compared. 

 For such purposes of gradual improvement of classifications and 

 descriptions, it obviously is necessary that names be held to their 

 original application instead of being borrowed or shifted from one 

 group to another, as the custom was among the older writers. 



In order that a generic name like Euterpe may always refer to the 

 same group of plants, it should be attached inseparably to its original 

 "type" species, instead of being allowed to drift away to other species 

 that later may prove to belong to different genera, and so leave the orig- 

 inal type to be renamed, as often has happened. The need of replacing 

 these insecure methods began to be recognized several decades ago, 

 but much of the confusion caused by casual or arbitrary transfers of 

 names has still to be corrected. Darwin himself appreciated the basic 



