Front matter (continued 2)
Reading edition
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[7] 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 569somewhat 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.