As shown by the rimose bark this species affords a rather extreme instance of the gradual enlargement of the trunk at a distance from the growing point. Numerous leaf-bases remain attached to the trunk in the greenhouse as they would not do in nature, since they are torn loose except for a few fibers at the extreme sides.
[4]. Dr. Rose also kindly permits the use of the following field notes and measurements showing that Inodes Rosei is also a taller and more slender tree than I. Uresana.
“Trees 6–12 or sometimes even 18 meters high, the long slender naked trunk 15–20 cm. in diameter, crowned with a large cluster of leaves; petioles 60 cm. or more long, flat on the face, pubescent, but becoming glabrate; blade pale green, 8 cm. or more in width, strongly keeled, more or less clothed beneath with brown scales on the large veins; segments cleft to below the middle, 25 mm. or less wide; inflorescence in large branching panicles 60 cm. or more long; fruit spherical, 18 mm. in diameter, blackish or dark blue when mature.”
“A very common tree east of Rosario towards Mazatlan, also extending all the way from Rosario to Acaponeta; especially common on the low hills, and east of Rosario toward the mountains. This species is of considerable economic importance, the trunks being used in building fences, corrals and huts, while the leaves appear as thatch on a majority of the houses of this region.”
[5]. Hist. Nat. Palmarum 2: 29.
[6]. Roemer and Schultes treated Martinezia as a synonym of Oreodoxa.
[7]. That the fruits are small and are ripened at one season, as stated in the key, was apparent from the size of the seedlings and from other circumstances which accorded with the testimony of the man whose house stood within a few rods of the largest tree.
TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES
- Silently corrected obvious typographical errors and variations in spelling.
- Retained archaic, non-standard, and uncertain spellings as printed.
- Re-indexed footnotes using numbers and collected together at the end of the last chapter.