Pomona College Journal of Economic Botany 411 



however, from all the other Thrinax-like palms found in Cuba by its leaves, 

 which are relatively large, divided into numerous segments (about 40) and 

 not silvery underneath, but very faintly covered with a thin slightly rusty 

 coating, which seems to vanish in the old leaves. 



The specimens upon which the species is founded consist only of leaves 

 and of portions of the fibrous net resting at the base of the petiole and 

 composed of very fine brown filaments. This is perhaps another of the palms 

 growing only in the east of the island. 



Figure 171. Coccothrinax martii. a, portion of a flowering branchlet; b, flower, 

 front view; c, flower as seen from behind; d, fruit; e, seed from a not quite 

 mature fruit. From Wright No. 3219. 



NOTE ON STEM THICKENING IN PALMS 



It is now a very well established fact that the stem of several palms 

 increases considerably in diameter, especially in its basal part, and this 

 increase is said to be caused by a secondary growth, which, while it chiefly 

 takes place in the fundamental parenchymatous tissue, is, also, in a small 

 measure, developed by the formation of new fibro-vascular bundles.* I think, 

 however, that the abnormal increase in diameter, or bulging, of the woody 

 cylinder of certain palms in their intermediate, or upper part, which results 

 in fusiform or clavate shaped trunks, is of a somewhat different nature from 

 the more common form of thickening, observed in numerous palms, especially 

 in those with a cocoid trunk. 



*Zodda: Suirispessimento dello stipite di alcune Palme, in "Malpighia" v. XVIII 

 (1904), page 33. 



