350 Cook : NOMENCLATURE OF THE ROYAL PALMS 
related to those for which they were originally proposed. Martius 
seems to have had no personal acquaintance with either of Will- 
denow’s two original species of Oreodoxa from Venezuela. The 
first he left nominally in the genus and the second he referred to 
/riartea, but the centre of gravity, as it were, was shifted to the 
West Indian species unknown to Willdenow. Wendland, whose 
knowledge of the palms of the Caribbean region advanced far be- 
yond that of Martius, did not show any corresponding improve- 
ment of nomenclatorial policy. He completed the removal of 
both the original species from Oreodoxa, assigning the first (0. 
acuminata) to Euterpe, and the second (O. praemorsa) to a new 
genus Catodlastus, leaving the West Indian royal palms in full 
possession of the name Oreodova, though with no defensible title. 
There seems to be no reason for setting aside Wendland’s opinion 
that O. acuminata is a Euterpe rather than an Oreodoxa, in the 
Martian sense, but the name Euéerpe is not available for any 
American palm,* and a new name would be required for the 
group to which O. acuminata belongs unless Oreodoxa be restored 
to its original place in the system. 
Messrs. Dammer and Urban rejected Wendland’s idea of the 
affinities of Oreodoxra acuminata and consider it congeneric with 
the West Indian royal palms because seedlings supposed to belong 
to O. acuminata} have the primary leaves of the germinating plant 
simple and entire, while those which follow have the apex bifid 
and long-produced. It is not explained why similarities of the 
seedlings should be supposed to cancel differences of the adult 
palm, and such an argument would prove too much in the present 
case, because Acrista, and probably several other genera, related 
and unrelated, have primary leaves of the character described. 
Generic diagnoses of palms have commonly taken into account 
only floral characters. Perhaps the use of the seedlings may lead 
in time to an appreciation of other vegetative features. The 
cespitose, “stoloniferous”’ habit of Ovreodoxa acuminata, for 
example, furnishes as important evidence of relationship as the 
seedling, and this supports the association of the type of Oreodoxa 
TD egg tre ak ee: ace” ae 
* See page 351 : 
+ No indication of the origin of these seedlings is given, nor of the manner in which 
they were specifically identified as belonging to Oreodoxa acuminata. 
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