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Pomona College Journal of Economic Botany 



bb. Flowers wnth 6-9 stamens. Fruits borne on a pedicel 

 3-5 mm. long. C. acuminata 



aa. Leaves slightly ferrugineous (not silvery-white) on the lower 

 surface, divisions strongly striately-veined on both surfaces, 



C. crinita 



Coccothrinax miraguano Becc. in Webbia di U. Mart., II (1907), 295. 

 Thrinax? miraguano Mart. Hist. nat. Palm. Ill, 320; Sauv. Fl. Cub. 

 n. 2378. 



This palm grows as isolated, scattered individuals in the plain at 

 Cayamas in the Province of Santa Clara, apparently much deprived of its 

 usual associates by the fires, which from time to time destroy the smaller 

 vegetation of the savannahs. It is not a large palm, as it does not appear to 

 surpass the height of 5-6 meters. The stem is cylindrical, probably not 



\ Figure 168. Coccothrinax miraguano. a, portion of a flowering branchlet (the 

 flowers are pedicellate); b, flower; c, fruiting perianth, as seen from above, after 

 the fruit has been removed; d, fruiting periemth, as seen from behind; e, fruit; 

 f, seed seen from above; g, seed, lower surface, in the center is the hilum; h, seed 

 cut longitudinally through the embryo. From Wright No. 3221. 



more than 15 cm. in diameter; it is crowned by brilliant, stiff, silvery leaves, 

 but is clothed at the same time, perhaps during many years, with the dead 

 ones, or, at least, it remains covered by half burnt vaginas of the leaf-stalks, 

 when the blade has happened to be destroyed by fire. With time these 

 stumps, also, fall off, and the base of the trunk remains for a certain distance 

 above the soil naked and marked by approximate ring-like .scars. 



The expanded leaves of the full grown plant are of a very stiff texture, 

 orbicular, divided into 20-25 or even 30 radiating segments of a beautiful 



