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Pomona College Journal of Economic Botany 



Cocos nucifera is also frequently met with in Cuba; about this palm Mr. O. 

 F. Cook writes: "Columbus himself recorded the finding of coconuts on the north 

 coast of Cuba, near Puerto Principe, only a little over a month after his first 

 landing in the Bahamas, "t an assumption, however, which in my opinion is open 

 to serious objections. 



It is a remarkable fact that amongst the twenty-five palms indigenous to 

 Cuba, three of them {Oreodoxa regia, Acrocomia fusiformis, Pritchardia wrightii) 

 perhaps even a fourth {Pseudophoenix vinifera?) ])ossess bulging or fusiform 

 trunks, whereas amongst the several hundreds of species inhabiting the Old 

 World, only two or three are endowed with this j)eculiarity. Other Cuban palms 

 are noteworthy for the great mass of roots at the base of their trunks, but this 

 is a far more common phenomenon than the bulging of the trunk. 



These deviations from the normal and more common structure in palms, has 

 suggested to me some observations, which I hope will not be found quite out of 

 place, as an appendix to the systematic part of this study. 



For the present monograph of the Cuban palms I have been able to study 

 a rather extensive material, for which I am largely indebted to Prof. C. F. Baker; 

 other valuable specimens I have found in the Herbarium de Candolle. But I must 

 especially thank Prof. I. Urban for the loan of tlie entire set of jialms gathered 

 in the Caribbean Islands by numerous collectors, forming part of the Herbarium 

 Krug and Urban, and now incorporated in that of Berlin. 



Conspectus of the Genera 



I. Leaves pinnate, pinnatisect, or simply pinnately veined. 

 Tribe I— ARECAE 



Ovary 1-3 celled. Fruit with 1-3 seeds; endocarp membraneous, fibrous, or 

 thinly woody ; not marked by pores on its outer surface. 



1. Female flowers with valvate petals, more or less united in their basal |)art. 

 a. Flowers in groups of 3, one female between two males, at least in the lower 



part of the branchlets. Oreodoxa 

 aa. Flowers pedicellate in small bunches at the end of the branchlets. Male 



flowers numerous. Female flowers few, having the perianth smaller than 



the male ones, but equally well developed stamens. Pseudophoenix 

 aaa. Flowers approximate in linear groups of 2-5, one above the other, of which 



the lowest is usually female and the others male. Gaussia 



2. Female flowers with imbricate petals. 



a. Male flowers with 6 stamens having free filaments. Euterpe 



hospitable country residence of George Bradford, Esq.) and especially in the 

 elevated district back of Santa Catalina de Guantanamo, where the collector's prin- 

 cipal station was Monte Verde, a coffee plantation, residence of the most estimable 

 and hospitable M. Lescaille; from which place, as a centre, Mr. Wright is still 

 prosecuting and extending his herborizations." 



JHistory of the Coconut Palm in .America, in Contrib. U. S. Nat. Herb. v. 

 XIV. II., p. 280. 



