The so-called llume palm is a most striking ornament of the rugged limestone hills from Vega Baja to Manati and Arecibo. At a sufficient distance the slender trunk is no longer visible and the crown of leaves appears as if suspended in mid-air, while at closer range it does not seem possible that so slender a shaft can maintain itself. This very slenderness with the attending flexibility is however, an element of strength since it permits the trees to bend before the wind while the leaves diminish the resistance by straightening out as in the cocoanut. The hurricane of August, 1899, seemed to have done little damage to these tallest of Puerto Rico palms, many of which project for more than half their height above everything standing about them. As the trees of the rather sparse forest growth of these hills are commonly from 12 to 18 metres tall, the llume palms must often attain upwards of 30 metres.
Areca Catechu Linn. Sp. Pl. 1189. 1753
In the western end of the island the betel palm of the Malay region has been sparingly introduced, though the fact does not seem to have been reported hitherto. A few were seen in gardens about Mayaguez and others in and near San Sebastian. So far as we were able to learn, the people do not know the name or nature of this introduced species which is apparently planted only as an ornament or a curiosity. The form is not unpleasing, but the extremely deep, sombre green of the foliage seems almost unnatural and imparts a suggestion of artificiality.
Only photographs and fruits of Areca were secured at San Sebastian, but Puerto Rico specimens collected by Sintenis (no 5749) at Aguadilla have already been distributed from the Berlin Botanical Garden with the label “Palma Spec. Subtrib. Attaleae.”
ROYSTONEA Cook, Science, II. 12: 479. 1900
Oreodoxa Martius and more recent authors, not Willdenow.
The history of the generic name Oreodoxa shows that botanical writers of the last few decades have been in error in removing the two original species and applying it to another series of similar but not closely related forms. To avoid further confusion with reference to a name which by reason of the conspicuous character of the trees has wide use in popular literature it seems desirable to add the following notes on the genus Oreodoxa as originally established by Willdenow in the Memoires de l’Academie Royale, Berlin, 1804, a publication which seems to have been consulted very seldom, even by writers on palms.
Spathe universal, univalvate; spadix ramose, perianth monophyllous, tripartite below, the divisions ovate, acute, concave; petals ovate, acuminate, concave. Filaments six, of the length of the corolla; anthers oblong, acute. Style tripartite, shorter than the filaments, stigma acute. Ovule, drupe, and seed globose; drupe succulent, but slightly fibrous; seed single, cartilaginous, nearly smooth, marked with a longitudinal sulcus. In the discussion subsequent to the statement of the above characters, Oreodoxa is said to be distinct from Bactris in the tripartite style and in the absence of the “ordinary three impressions”; it is distinguished from Areca, then supposed to include Euterpe and species now generally placed in Oreodoxa, in the single spathe, the triple style and the hermaphrodite flowers.
The first species is Oreodoxa acuminata, referred by recent authors to Euterpe but probably constituting a distinct genus. The trunk is erect, cylindrical, very smooth, and attains a height of from 15 to 18 metres; the “root” throws out suckers at the base of the trunk. The fronds are pinnate, with opposite or alternate, very long, ensiform, acuminate pinnae, replicate at base. The strongly convolute young leaves form a green apex for the trunk, five feet high. Spathes cinereous, folded in at the base of the leaf-sheaths at the top of the trunk, univalvate, deciduous; spadix erect, much branched, having the appearance of a broom.
The heart of the bundle of leaf-bases, about two feet long and three inches thick is eaten as a salad, with oil and vinegar. It is also stated that the deciduous boat-shaped spathes serve as reservoirs of rain-water which is long retained in the cool shade cast by the trees. Birds and beasts, and human natives as well, are said to be dependent at times upon the liquid thus stored, since in the regions where the palm grows there are at times no other means of procuring water. The forests of the high mountain chain of Buena Vista in the province of Caracas are the native home of the species. It thus appears that in addition to the structural differences Oreodoxa acuminata occupies quite a different place in nature from that of the more thoroughly tropical species commonly referred to that genus, and the stoloniferous habit also indicates a different ecology.