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Pomona College Journal of Economic Botany 



For the old and familiar name of Oredoxa Mr. (). F. Cook (Bull. Torrey bot 

 Club, 1901, p. .5i9) has substituted that of lioystonea, on the ground that the type 

 of the genus Oreodoxa is (). acuminata of Willdenow, a palm referred to Euterpe 

 by Wendland, but which, according to Cook, is the type of a distinct genus, for 

 wliich tlie name of Oreodoxa must be maintained. 



Wendland has recognized Willdenow's O. acuminata in the flowering specimen 

 of a palm, collected by Moritz at Tovar in Venezuela (N. 1670 in the Berlin. 

 Herb.) My own independent researches have led me to the same conclusion, with 

 regard to a fruiting specimen, collected by Fendler (n. 2t62 in Herb, de Cand.) 

 also at Tovar, and consequently in a region not remote from Buenavista, from 

 whence came the original specimen of O. acuminata (Figure 109). 



Figure 109. Euterpe acuminata, a, portion of a fruit-bearing branchlet; b, fruit; 

 c, seed cut longitudinally through the embryo. (From Fendler No. 2462). 



The above mentioned Fendler's specimen corresponds exactly to the descrip- 

 tion of 0. acuminata given by Willdenow, and most certainly belongs to a typical 

 Euterpe, having the seed with a ruminate albumen. Now as the genus Euterpe 

 Gaertner is very well identified at present, as I shall demonstrate later, when 

 speaking of this genus, and as this genus was published in the year 1788, and 

 Oreodoxa Willd. in 1804, the name of Oreodoxa acuminata was rightly changed 

 by Wendland to that of Euterpe acuminata, and accordingly the name of Oreodoxa, 

 applied to 0. regia by Kunth, remains unattached. 



The accurate study I have made of the Cuban 0. regia has led me to make 

 a rigorous revision of all the other members of the genus Oreodoxa, which I con- 

 sider to be composed of the following species only: 



