58 



AEECACEAE. 



Order 6. ARECALES. 



Mostly trees with unbranched, erect trunks and a terminal bud, the large 

 leaves pinnately or palmately divided, forming a terminal crown, the small, 

 perfect or imperfect flowers usually panicled, sessile or pedioelled, the 

 panicle subtended by a spathe and usually bracted. Sepals and petals each 

 3, distinct or connate. Stamens commonly 6, sometimes 9-12; filaments 

 distinct lor connate below; anthers introrse; pistillate flowers sometimes 

 with staminodia. Ovary various, 1-celled, 3-celled or of 3 distinct carpels; 

 style usually short or wanting; ovules 1 in each carpel, anatropous. Fruit 

 drupaceous, 1-seeded. Seed with homy or cartilaginous endosperm, the 

 small embryo near the surface. 



Family 1. AE.ECACEAE Rchb. 

 Palm Family. 



Characters of the order, 

 tropical. 



Leaves palmately cleft. 

 Petioles smootl. 



Style terminal in fruit. 

 Endosperm smootli. 

 Endosperm grooved. 

 Style basal in fruit. 

 Petioles spine-toothed. 

 Leaves pinnately divided. 



Fruit normally 2-3-lobed, not watery within. 

 Fruit trigonous, large, watery within. 



About 150 genera and 1200 species, mostlj 



1. Thrinax. 



2. Coccothrlnax. 



3. Sabal. 



4. Paurotis. 



5. Fseudophoenlx. 



6. Oocos. 



1. THUINAX Sw. Prodr. 57. 1788. 



TJnarmed, mostly tall and slender palms with nearly orbicular, palmately 

 cleft, long-petioled leaves, the narrow segments mostly 2-eleft at the apex, the 

 petioles flat, the inflorescence sheathed, paniculately branched, the small, perfect 

 flowers white. 'Calyx and corolla more or less united into a lobed or truncate 

 cup. Stamens mostly 6, the filaments connate at the base. Ovary 1-celled ; 

 style terminal, slender; stigma flat or concave. Drupes small, globose. Seed 

 erect; endosperm horny, not grooved; embryo lateral. [Greek, fan.] About 12 

 species of Florida, the West Indies and Central America. Type species: 

 Thrinax parviflora Sw. 



Fruit essentially sessile. 



Fruiting pedicels about as long as the fruit. 



1. Thrinax microcarpa Sargent, Gard.*& For. 9: 162. 1896. 



Thrinax Iceyensis Sargent, Bot. Gaz. 27: 86. 1899. 



Thrinax iahamensis 0. F. Cook, Mem. Torr. Club 12: 20. 1902. 



A tree, up to 12 m. high, with a trunk 2-2.5 dm. in diameter, usually much 

 smaller. Leaves 1.5 m. in diameter or less, deeply cleft into many narrow 

 segments, green and shining above, bluish or silvery-white beneath, the ligule 

 blunt or acute, 1..5-2.5 cm. wide; inflorescence '2 m. long or less, as long as the 

 leaves or shorter; pedicels very short, disk-like; perianth about 3 mm. long; 



H . T. microcarpa. 

 2. T. parviflora. 



