Pomona College Journal of Economic Botany 



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mention those gathered by Bak«r and Dinmock (n. 4882) between Paso Real 

 y Herradura, from the same place where was taken the photograph repro- 

 duced in Pig. 145, which have the intermediate leaflets with 7-8 nerves, or as 

 many as in "Wright's n. 1466, considered as C. swartzii by Grisebach himself; 

 whereas another specimen gathered in about the same region wdth the pre- 

 ceding, at Herradura, by van Hermann (n. 875), but probably obtained from 

 a plant growing in less favorable conditions of ambient, has the intermediate 

 leaflets 35-40 cm. long, 15-17 mm. broad and with 4-5 nerves only; these 

 specimens, therefore, would be considered as of C. dulcis. In the spadices I 

 have found only slight differences in the dimensions, and these chiefly in the 

 length of the branchlets, between the specimens of the two localities. 



The Cuban specimens of Calyptrogyne I have examined are : Herb. 

 Baker n. 4882 as quoted above (Herb. Berol. et Becc.) ; the, also, already 

 mentioned van Hermann n. 875, Herradura (Herb. Becc. and Berol.) ; from 

 these last specimens I have described and figured the fruit; Baker n. 3050 (in 

 Hterb. Becc.) at Baracoa, Prov. Santiago de Cuba; Wright n. 1466 (in Herb, 

 de Cand.) from the east of the island, distributed under the name of Geonoma 

 (Calyptronoma) swartzii Gr. et Wendl; this I used for the description of 

 the flowers and their analyses; van Hermann n. 745 (Herb. Berol.), Provincia 

 Pinar del Rio; Curtiss n. 485 (in Herb, de Cand. and Berlin), Isla de Pinos. 

 Of "Wright's n. 3972, referred by Sauvalle, Fl. Cub. n. 2387, to Geonoma 

 intermedia Gris. et "Wendl., I have seen no specimens. 



ACROCOMIA Mart. 

 Mart. Hist. nat. Palm. II, 66, and III, 285; Drude in Mart. Fl. Bras., 

 Ill, II, 388; Benth. et Hook. Gen. plant. III, 943. Gastrococos Morales 

 in Repert. fisico-natural de la Isla de Cuba, I (1865), p. 57-64 (ex sched. 

 Urbanianis). 



A very rigorous examination of the numerous specimens of Acrocomia, 

 derived from almost every island of the Greater and Lesser Antilles has led 

 me to the conclusion that in these islands only two distinct species of Acrocomia 

 grow wild. One of these, A. crispa, is apparently endemic in Cuba; the other 

 is widely dispersed in the islands to the east, and espeially in the Lesser 

 Antilles, I believe, therefore, that all the specific names attributed to the 

 Acrocomia existing in the Antilles (except in Cuba) are to be reduced to only 

 one, i. e. to the oldest, which is, I think, Cocos aculeata {trunco foliisque 

 aculeatis) Jacq. Amer. (1763), p. 278, t, 169 (non vidi) ; edit, pict., p. 135, t. 

 254 (ex Mart.) ; Willd. sp. pi. I"V^, p. 401. I consider the Cocos fusiformis 

 Swartz, Fl. Ind. occ. I, p. 616 (1797), as exactly the same plant as that of 

 Jacquin (mentioned above) against the opinion of Swartz himself, who, at 

 first, (novas Gen. et sp. plant, sen Prodr., 1788, p. 151) had reduced to C. 

 aculeata the plant which, afterwards, he named C. fusiformis, as he could not 

 believe it possible that Jacquin had overlooked the character of the fusiform 

 trunk, possessed by the Acrocomia of Jamaica and Hispaniola, to which Swartz, 

 just for that reason, had applied the name of C. fusiformis. But the trunk of 

 Acrocomia (Cocos) aculeata is very variable as to its forms, and in the same 



