The nomenclature of the royal palms 
O. F. Coox 
In two previous discussions of botanical nomenclature * the 
royal palms and their relatives have served as instances of the 
prevailing taxonomic confusion. The West Indian species which 
in general practice for many years past have constituted the genus 
Oreodoxa are, in all probability, generically distinct from either of 
the two Venezuelan species placed under Oreodoxa when that 
genus was first described by Willdenow in 1804.+ Detailed 
reasons for this view were included in a ‘‘Synopsis of the palms 
of Porto Rico,” t where a new royal palm found in that island was 
described under the name Roystonea boringuena. In a recent 
fascicle of the Symbolae Antillanae,§ the important work on West 
Indian botany now being issued by Professor Urban of Berlin, the 
royal palm of Porto Rico is admitted to be distinct from that of 
Cuba, but is given the name Oreodoxa caribaea. 
Unsystematic methods of systematic study have resulted in 
endless nomenclatorial complications which should not be dis- 
cussed, perhaps, outside technical monographs. The royal palms, 
however, are among the most conspicuous members of the vege- 
table world, and the errors which have been made in dealing with 
them are not without practical interest as samples of the confusion 
Which could be avoided by adherence to the more simple and 
practical system of nomenclatorial procedure sometimes termed 
the “ method of types.”’ , 
Like many of his contemporaries, Martius, the great German 
Palm specialist of the first half of the last century, largely dis- 
seatded the work of his predecessors, in the sense that he 
“emended ” generic descriptions with the greatest freedom and 
did not hesitate to apy generic names to move of ae not 
* The. See of Gees in biliakeat “nolencladtte: Science, IL. 12: 475. 1900. 
Types and Synonyms. Science, II. 15: 648. 1902 
+ Mem. Acad. Roy. Berlin, ets 37-1807. 
t Bull. Torrey Club, 28: 552. gol. 
@ Dammer, U., and Urban, I. Pa/mae. Symbolae Antillanae, 4: 126. 1903. 
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