Pomona College Journal op Economic Botany 



369 



solitary, the cavity is very obsoletely three-lobed in transverse section, and 18 

 mm. in breadth. The seed (when solitary) is obsoletely subcordate-three-lobed, 

 slightly flattened, with a brown venose-impr«ssed surface. Albumen oily, 

 equable, with a small central cavity, perfectly white ; it is rather hard, but it 

 may be cut with a knife. 



Fruiting perianth explanate, with the petals crenate-lobed on the thinn«d 

 margins, slightly callous and gibbous at the base. (Fig. 149.) 



>/ Figure 149. Acrocomia aculeata, a, portion of an empty male flower-bearing' 

 branchlet; b, male flower; c, male flower from which a portion has been removed 

 to show the insertion of the stamens and of the sterile ovary; d, female flower; 

 e, section of the corolla to show its inner side, and the cup formed by the 

 staminodes; f, detached ovary during the anthesis. From a specimen collected 

 by Sintenis in Porto Rico. 



Acrocomia aculeata has been often considered as not differentiating from 

 A. sclerocarpa Mart., and on this subject Martins (Palm. Orbign. 81) writes 

 that a branchlet with male flowers coming from Porto Rico and named Cocos 

 aculeata, hardly presents any character by which it may be distinguished from 

 A. sclerocarpa. But A. aculeata differs from A. sclerocarpa by the fruit of the 

 first being larger, and having the perianth almost explanate, the bases of the 



