The following systematic notes have been accumulated in connection with economic studies of Puerto Rico [1] palms, and although the list is doubtless still incomplete, the printing of it may be justified as a means of securing at least provisional names needed for reference purposes in connection with other publications of a non-systematic character. The palms may well be considered a very refractory group when handled by the conventional methods of systematic botany. Difficult at once to collec

Leaves fan-shaped; branches of inflorescence subtended by spathes. Leaves feather-shaped; spathes few, not subtending the branches of the inflorescence. Leaf-divisions v-shaped in section, concave above; trunk rough with leaf-bases or prominent diamond shaped scars. Leaf-divisions inverted v-shaped in section, convex above; trunk smooth or the leaf-scars ring-like and not prominent. Leaf-bases long-sheathing, green and fleshy, finally split down the side opposite the midrib permitting the leaf t

This family contains a single genus of old-world palms usually associated with the fan-leaved series, and differing from all other feather-palms by having the concave side of the leaf segments turned upward....

The date palm was probably introduced into Puerto Rico in the early part of the Spanish occupation of the island, and isolated trees are to be found in many localities especially in the vicinity of the larger towns. The climate is, however, too cool and too moist to permit the fruit to ripen properly, and there is apparently no inducement for planting in large quantities....

Although forming no conspicuous part of the palm vegetation of the island the fan-leaved species seem to be more numerous than those of any other family. It is certain also that further species remain to be discovered, since in addition to the species listed below, young inflorescences supposed to belong to a Copernicia were collected by Sintenis (no. 6512) near Utuado, and he also collected two other Thrinax -like palms of doubtful identity, one near Cabo Rojo and one at Fajardo. Leaves depress

A large family, with abundant genera in the tropics of America and Asia, but absent from tropical Africa. The Puerto Rico representatives may be recognized very easily by the fact that the leaf crown is supported upon a column of the sheathing bases, a character of which the royal palm furnishes a conspicuous and ever-present example. Of the remaining genera, one, the betel palm of the East Indies is sparingly introduced about towns in the western part of the island and may be recognized at a gl

The cocoid palms are a distinctly American group, the African oil-palm, Elaeis Guineensis and the cocoanut being the only outliers of the family which have been supposed to be indigenous in the Old World. South America is the center of distribution and is the home of a large proportion of the two hundred or more species. Only five genera reach Puerto Rico, and one of these, Cocos , was probably not a native of the island. Trunks, stems, and midribs beset with sharp spines; seeds foraminate at or

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). Pl. 43. THRINCOMA ALTA HE