mMaAyY 4, 1923 COOK: NEW GENUS OF PALMS 181 
diameter, supported on a solid conical mass of thick roots, and attain- 
ing a height of 60 feet or more. The leaves are large and pinnate, but 
few in number, usually only 5 or 6, with a total length of 8 or 9 feet, 
and about 90 pinnae on each side of the midrib. The inflorescences 
are several joints below the leaves, with the branches robust and 
mostly simple, and ripening into large clusters of red cherry-like 
fruits, like those of Synechanthus. 
As the Tikal district is now entirely uninhabited, no uses of the palm 
were learned, and the only name to be learned was palma cimarrona, 
or “wild palm.” At El Cayo, in British Honduras, one informant 
gave cambo, or kambo, as the Maya equivalent of palma cimarrona. 
But the palm was not noticed in the vicinity of El Cayo, nor along the 
Belize River, though it was seen at several places-on the road between 
Flores and Benque Viejo, as well as in the forests to the northward. 
Since the fruit and floral characters are those of the Synechanthaceae 
the new palm may be assigned to this family, which includes only 
three other genera, Synechanthus in Guatemala, Gaussia in Cuba, and 
Aeria in Porto Rico. The tall trunk would associate Opstandra with 
the West Indian genera, but there is no such swelling of the lower part 
of the trunk asin Aeria. Also, Opsiandra has 4 spathes, instead of 7 as 
in Aeria, or 2 as in Gaussia. Between Opsiandra and Synechanthus 
there is little external resemblance, the latter being a short-trunked 
undergrowth palm with clustered pinnae and slender, fastigiate in- 
florescence-branches. : 
Diagnostic features of Opsiandra are the tall, columnar trunk, the 
infrafoliar inflorescences, the 4 short, narrow spathes, the thick simple 
branches of the spadix, the flowers only 2 or 3 in each cluster, the petals 
thick and valvate in both sexes, the persistent staminate buds, and 
the transversely reniform seeds, with uniform albumen and a central 
cavity. The most striking peculiarity is that the inflorescence 
branches are robust and simple, while in the other genera the branches 
have numerous slender divisions and the flowers more definitely in 
rows. 
The technical characters of the new genus may be summarized as 
follows: 
Opsiandra Cook, gen. nov. 
Trunk solitary, erect, ascending or flexuous, columnar below, slightly and 
gradually tapering above, scarcely enlarged at the base, supported by a 
conical mass of very thick roots. 
Leaves few, usually 5 or 6, ascending, 2 to 3 meters long, with a cylindrical 
sheathing base; petiole distinct, deeply channelled below and with strongly 
