Part 10

=Acrocomia media= sp. nov.

Trunk 20–30 cm. in diameter near the base, thickened above to 50 cm. or less; height commonly about 6–8 m. rarely exceeding 10 m. Surface of trunk with slight annular impressions. Internodes armed with slender black spines, the larger 10–15 cm. long, mostly confined to the lower half of the internodes. Fruit green, becoming yellowish, the husk firmly fibrous, inedible; about 35 mm. in diameter, nearly spherical in shape, with a distinct apical papilla. Kernel 25 mm. wide by 22 mm. long; width of the cavity 18 mm. The type specimen was collected near Ponce (photograph no. 255).

The Acrocomia of Puerto Rico seems to differ from A. aculeata (Jacquin) in its robust habit and somewhat bulging trunk, while it is less stout and less swollen than A. fusiformis (Swartz). The name Acrocomia lasiospatha, although used by Martius and Grisebach has no warrant for supplanting fusiformis of Swartz, which must be preferred for the Jamaica species with the thick, swollen trunk.

In Jamaica there seem to be at least two species of Acrocomia, the larger of which is called the “great macaw” palm, and is described as having a fusiform trunk as thick as a man’s body. What is presumably the same species occurs in Cuba as shown by a photograph from the vicinity of La Gloria on the north coast. The greatest diameter of the trunk is three or four times the thickness near the base. In Puerto Rico no trees approximating these proportions were observed, the greatest amount of swelling probably not reaching twice the diameter below. According to Maza Acrocomia lasiospatha grows wild in Cuba and is known under the name “coroja de Jamaica.” Swartz described his Cocos fusiformis on the supposition that it was distinct from the Cocos aculeatus of Jacquin, from Martinique, by reason of the fusiform trunk. The species was, nevertheless, reduced by Martius to his South American Acrocomia sclerocarpa, perhaps because the spathe is said to be spiny, a character probably subject to great variation.

Jacquin’s name Acrocomia aculeata (1763) must, it seems, be used for the West Indian palm placed by Martius under his A. sclerocarpa, which is to be maintained, if at all, as a South American species. Jacquin declares that the habit of his tree is similar to that of Cocos nucifera and Cocos amara (Syagrus), and his figure shows a tall straight trunk tapering slightly upward, with no tendency to bulge. The spines of the trunk are few and the midribs are aculeate on both sides. The drawing of the fruit is 37 mm. long by 41 mm. wide and has a broad conic papilla at apex. As indicated above, such a tree was not noticed in Puerto Rico where all the corozo palms are distinctly, though slightly, thicker some distance above the base, though apparently never equaling A. fusiformis in this respect.

Subfamily COCINAE

Key to the Genera of Cocinae

Trunk distinctly ringed, rising from an inclined swollen base; leaves numerous, many of the lower drooping or pendant, the divisions many and narrow; fruits very large, borne continuously.

COCOS.

Trunk nearly smooth, straight and columnar; leaves fewer, not becoming pendant, divisions less numerous and broader; fruits small, borne at one time and ripening together.

COCOPS.

COCOS NUCIFERA Linn. Sp. Pl. 1188. 1753

The cocoa-palm is largely confined to the neighborhood of the coast, but is occasionally planted in small numbers in the interior districts, though it generally does not thrive in such situations especially on the north side of the island. On the drier southern slope of Puerto Rico, which is avoided by the royal palm, the cocoanut seems to thrive better, when it has once become established. Cocoanuts are mostly gathered while still green, for the sake of the milk or, as it is there called, the water (coco de agua) a popular beverage wherever obtainable. Although the local consumption of nuts for this purpose is considerable it is largely confined to the towns of the coast region. Thus it may be said that in Puerto Rico the cocoa-palm affords a luxury rather than a necessity, and that it is exceeded in economic importance by the royal palm.

=Cocops= gen. nov.

In a valley on the road between Lares and San Sebastian several young palms were noticed with leaves similar to the cocoanut, but smaller and finer. Finally one mature specimen was found, with both trunk and leaves strongly suggesting the cocoanut, but much smaller. The leaves are light green, the leaflets in one plane, and the fibers separating from the narrow base of the leaf. The fibers are few and flimsy, but like those of the cocoanut and other South American species of Cocos. The palm stood within a few feet of a small permanent brook, down which the seeds had evidently been carried and there were several young palms along the bank. The native living in an adjacent house could give us no name except palmilla, and seemed to think that none was necessary since the tree does not yield yagua or anything else of use. Its early extermination is therefore not unlikely.

In the absence of flowers and fruit the relationships of the present genus cannot be ascertained nor its validity satisfactorily established. There seems, however, to be no reason for including the species in any of the genera known from Puerto Rico or other parts of the West Indies, and to associate it with Central and South American types would be a still less warrantable procedure.

It is also believed that under the present circumstances the application of a name is justified by convenience of reference and that this will also assist in securing the attention of botanical collectors better than a mere allusion to “an unknown palm which may be new.”

=Cocops rivalis= sp. nov.

In diameter the trunk appeared to be about midway between the palma de sierra (Acrista) and the cocoanut, and had the short internodes of the latter. The leaves, however, probably remain somewhat smaller than those of Acrista to which they might also be said to have a general similarity, except at the base where their cocoid proclivities become obvious. At a little distance Cocops might be overlooked as Acrista, while at shorter range it might be mistaken for a very depauperate cocoanut. No species of Cocos is, however, known to be native in the West Indies except the doubtful Cocos crispus H.B.K., from Cuba.

As a species Cocops rivalis may prove to be similar to Syagrus amara (Jacquin), which is reported as far north as Jamaica, but it seems to have no true generic affinity with Syagrus cocoides Martius, the South American palm which is the type of its genus. According to Martius S. amara is 30 cm. in diameter, as large or larger than Cocos nucifera and attains the height of from 20 to 35 meters; Syagrus cocoides, on the other hand, is a small slender palm with a trunk 2.5–3 m. high and 5–7.5 cm. in diameter, and with foliage and habit resembling the slender and diffuse South American species referred by Martius to Cocos, but very different from Cocos nucifera or from Cocops.

A leaf collected by Sintenis (no. 6061) near Camuy and coming from Berlin labeled Oreodoxa, obviously did not originate with an arecoid palm, but probably belongs with the present species. The region of Camuy is but a few miles from Lares, but there is much extremely rough and unoccupied country between, so that the danger of extermination appears to be somewhat diminished.

Explanation of Plates

PLATE 43. Thrincoma alta, top of type specimen (no. 848).

PLATE 44.. Thrincoma alta, part of leaf and seeds, natural size.

PLATE 45.. Thrinax Ponceana, type (no. 1005).

PLATE 46.. Acrista monticola, type (no. 761) collected near Adjuntas.

PLATE 47.. Fig. 1, Aeria attenuata. Fig. 2, Cocops rivalis (left) and Roystonea Borinquena (right).

PLATE 48.. Curima colophylla, apex of flower-cluster and terminal leaf-division, natural size. From type specimen (no. 878).