464 PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY 



pressed, oblique, strongly gibbous on the dorsal side and projecting 

 beyond the short acute beak on the ventral side, finely striate, 8 Hues 

 long: seed black. — Much resembling C. Ti/rczamrtotwi, Ilemsl., which 

 has more numerous leaflets on shorter petioles, and the fruit upon a 

 twice longer stipe, not striolate, compressed and semicircular, the dor- 

 sal suture being nearly straight. Shore of Lake Yzabal ; the fruit is 

 said to be used as a poison for dogs. 



4. Notes upon some Palms of Guatemala. 



Of the twenty-five species of palms collected by me in Guatemala, 

 most still remain undetermined. The following notes upon a few of 

 the more prominent, but rarely collected and hitherto little known, 

 will be of interest. 



Attalea Cohune, Mart. This is the most conspicuous palm on 

 the bottom lauds of the Chocon River and along the Rio Dulce, and 

 probably attains the largest size of any native species in Guatemala. 

 It is known as the Cohune, Monaco, or Corozo palm, these names be- 

 ing variously applied to different stages of its growth. For a series of 

 years it remains acaulescent and barren, its huge leaves rising nearly 

 erect from the ground. Even after the trunk has reached a height of 

 ten or fifteen feet or more, and has long been in bearing, it usually re- 

 mains covered to the ground with the persistent bases of the sheath- 

 ing petioles. Finally, these are gradually dropped, and the tree shows 

 a clean cylindrical trunk of thirty to fifty feet or more. The finest 

 specimen of this kind that I saw was in an opening upon the wooded 

 flanks of the Sierra Mico near Yzabal. 



The blade of the leaf is fifteen to twenty feet long, vertical in posi- 

 tion, and describing a most graceful curve, its numerous divisions 

 entirely distinct (an inch broad or more and an inch or two apart) and 

 conduplicate at base. The leaves are used for thatching, but are much 

 inferior to the less divided and flatter leaves of the Maniearia. The 

 triangular rhachis is higher than broad, to which the vertical position of 

 the leaf is due, its upper surface rufous-tomentose, as well as the folded 

 edges of the unexpanded blade. The persistent spathes are pendent 

 from among the leaves, six or seven feet long, very thick and firm, and 

 of the color and appearance of sole-leather, glabrous, deeply many- 

 sulcate for the whole length excepting the slender beak. The slender 

 branches of the sterile spadix are a foot long, bearing the flowers 

 mostly in pairs in the axils of broad triangular bracts. The inflexed 

 petals of the staminate flowers are six or eight lines long. In the fer- 



