364 



Pomona College Journal of Economic Botany 



Acrocomia gujanensis Lodd. (nomen) Guiana=i4. lasiospatha Mart.? 



Acrocomia minor Lodd. ex Don in Lond. Ilort. Brit, 382 QuidT 



Acrocomia horrida Lodd. (noraen) Trinidad=J,. aculeaia Lodd. ? 



Acrocomia glohosa l^Adi. (nomon) St. Vincent=.4. ac«Zea<a Lodd. ? 



Acrocomia tenuifrons Lodd. (nomen) ....St. Domino:o=.i4. aculeata Lodd.? 



Acrocomia crispa C. F. Baker exicc, n. 4566. Cocos? crispa Ilumb. Bonpl. 

 et Kunth, nova Gen., I, (1815), 302; Mart. Hist. nat. Palm. Ill, 324; 

 Kuntli, Enum. pi. Ill, 287. A. cubensis Lodd. ex II. Wendl. Ind. Palm. 

 I, (nomen). A. lasiospatha (non-Mart.) Gri.s. Cat. pi. cnb. 222 (Wr. n. 

 3223— non quoad Fl. Br. W. Ind. 521); Sauvalle, Fl. cub. p. 153, n. 

 2389. Astrocaryon sp. n. sec. Wendl. et Cocos armentalis Morales ex 

 Sauvalle Fl. Cub., p. 153, n. 2393. Astrocaryon crispum G. Maza in 

 nociones de Bot. (1893), 50. Gastrococos armentalis Morales 1. c. 



The Cuban Acrocomia is a most remarkable palm, being one of those in 

 which the bulging of the trunk in its upper aerial part is pre-eminently great 

 (Fig. 147). As far as I can judge from the picture, the trunk is about 10 

 metres in height, and 25-30 cm. in diameter at its base; thence it gradually 

 swells to nearly three times the thickness of its basal diameter; the greatest 

 diameter (about 70 cm.) being attained at 6-7 m. above the ground, thence the 

 trunk tapers again gradually, but in a much lesser degree than below; its 

 general aspect therefore cannot truly be termed fusiform, but is rather that 

 of an enormous club ; in its lower and older part the surface looks rough and 

 corky ; above it is obscurely and closely ringed by the leaf-scars, otherwise it is 

 smooth; it must, however, have been more or less permanently covered by 

 spines, but these seem easily detachable, and only a few remain visible in the 

 photograph. The crown of leaves is dense, but in proportion to the volume 

 of the stem it is relatively small. The lowest leaves drop off at every emission 

 of new spadices, and leave the trunk clean, with the spadices hanging below 

 the crown, when loaded with fruit. 



The leaves on the whole seem to be about 3 m. long, have their bases much 

 and suddenly enlarged, very thick, short and broad, and widening in their 

 lower parts so as to embrace the trunk ; petiole very short or almost obsolete ; 

 rachis glabrous, apparently not much armed, being quite spineless in the small 

 portions seen by me. Leaflets very numerous, arranged, more or less distinctly, 

 into approximate pairs on each side of the rachis; each pair is obliquely insert- 

 ed in contrary ways on the rachis, and the blades extend in two different planes. 

 The leaflets are firmly papyraceous, ensiform, and quite straight, and gradually 

 narrow from a rather considerable distance below the middle, to a very long- 

 acuminate, very briefly bifid apex ; they taper also, but slightly, towards the 

 base, are green, and almost glos.sy in the iipper surface ; the lower surface is 

 paler or slightly glaucescent, and especially in the newly expanded leaves, 

 which, when seen under a strong lens, show themselves covered on all the 

 ntimerous tertiary nerves with extremely minute hair-like corpuscles, not 

 always easily discernible ; the mid-costa is strong, prominent above and fre- 

 quently furnished with a bristle-like spinule at its base, superficial and smooth 



