Among the mountains between Cayey and Guayama many summits are covered with the palma de sierra, probably in places which have never been cleared. A few of the palms follow down the steeper uncultivated ravines. From a distance the crowns suggest royal palms but a closer view renders the difference apparent. There is also no suggestion of the bulging trunk of Roystonea. In height the palma de sierra probably does not exceed the royal palm.
The tips of leaflets of young leaves are connected by two brittle red strands both of which lie on the mesial face, one along the edge, the other near the middle. The tips of the leaflets are of the same material and are sometimes persistent as long corneous appendices like those of the cultivated Howea.
The generic name Euterpe Gaertner, which is commonly applied to a considerable series of American palms related to the present, was in reality established for the Malayan genus for which the name Calyptrocalyx Blume is now in use, Pinanga silvestris globosa Rumphius being cited by both Gaertner and Blume as the original, in the one case, of Euterpe globosa, and in the other of Calyptrocalyx spicatus. The origin and identity of the seed described and figured by Gaertner have not been established, and seem likely to remain in doubt; but in describing Calyptrocalyx, Blume argued that the generic name should remain with the seeds studied by Gaertner and declared that these did not belong to any Malayan species but to some of the arecoid palms of the Mascarene Islands. This suggestion seems not to have been disposed of by Martius or others, but the fact that Gaertner’s fruits showed an apical stigma seems to exclude them from the American group with which the generic name has been associated.
In making use of the name Euterpe for Brazilian palms Martius cites Gaertner as author of the genus and states that it is of worldwide distribution in the tropics. Gaertner’s E. globosa is placed as a synonym of E. oleracea[[5]] Martius, and Jacquin’s older name Areca oleracea stands in the same relation to Euterpe edulis Martius, thus rendering Euterpe oleracea Martius a specific homonym. Subsequently Martius claims the genus Euterpe for himself and expresses doubt whether it is the same as that named by Gaertner, while Drude in Engler and Prantl’s Natürlichen Pflanzenfamilien says “Euterpe Mart. (nicht Gaertn.).” Martius also admits that the West Indian Areca oleracea Jacquin is distinct from the Brazilian species of Euterpe, and redescribes it under the name Oreodoxa oleracea.
A further complication connected with Acrista was brought to light by finding that specimens collected by Sintenis (no. 1525) in the Luquillo Mountains in northeastern Puerto Rico and distributed from the Berlin Botanical Garden as Oreodoxa oleracea belong to the present genus, together with others collected in Martinique by Hahn (no. 805) and identified at Paris. With the last, the local name choux palmiste is given, the same which Jacquin noted in the original description of his Areca oleracea (Stirp. Am. 278. 1763). Moreover, it can scarcely be determined from Jacquin’s description whether he was dealing with a Roystonea or an Acrista or with both, though his claim that his was the tallest palm of the Antilles might hold the name for the Roystonea.
It might then be argued by some that Miller’s species, Palma altissima constituted a segregate from Jacquin’s oleracea and that the latter name is available for the Acrista of Martinique, whether identical or not with that of Puerto Rico. But with a possible doubt between the Acrista and the Roystonea there can scarcely be a justification for the use of the same name for a third South American species or a fourth West Indian.
As a means of decreasing the confusion it may be suggested that as neither the generic nor the specific name of the Brazilian palm which Martius called Euterpe oleracea (Hist. Nat. Palm. 2: 29) is available, the name Catis Martiana may be proposed, the generic designation having reference to the drooping pinnae characteristic of the present species and several of its South American relatives.
Acrista monticola sp. nov. [Plate 44.]
Trunk smooth, 10 to 15 m. high, perhaps taller, from 12 to 15 cm. in diameter, with distinct ring-like leaf-scars and internodes, light brownish or appearing grayish with bark lichens.
Leaves about 2 m. long, the pinnae lanceolate, equally spaced and lying nearly horizontal, 55 cm. long and 4 cm. broad; the surface light green on both sides, with very close parallel longitudinal veinlets, but no visible cross veins. The sheathing bases are considerably shorter and generally appear somewhat more robust than in Roystonea. In protected situations the leaf-bases persist and the margins shrivel up and expose a flimsy network of fibers. Inflorescences appearing several close together; by the falling of the leaves above them they are left several inches below the leaf-bases before maturity is attained. Spathes fusiform, long, more slender and pointed than in Roystonea. Spadix once-branched, 1 m. long, 6 cm. in diameter at base, tapering gradually to the apex. Branches 23 cm. long and less, the proximal branches longest; at first appressed to the rachis, the branches are opened out and held stiffly erect by a fleshy turgid cushion on the upper (distal) side of the base of each. The branches of the rachis may thus be said to be hinged, and with maturity the supporting cushion dries away and allows them to resume a direction nearly parallel to that of the rachis.