PRINCIPES [Vol. 9 GeographicDistribution Of Palms S. F. Gr,assuan Unioersity ol lllinois, ChicagoCircle In the processof preparing a revision each country and possessionin the New of B. E. Dahlgren's Index ol American World was determined. Table II enu- Palms (Field. Museum of Natural His- merates the genera and speciesof native tory Botanical Series 14: I-456. 1936), palms for thesecountries. Each country I have compiled a separatelist of palms is listed in geographic order starting native to the New World. Besidesthe with the United States and ending with original list, this enumeration includes Argentina. A completelist of names of new genera,, varieties, forms and genera and species for each country hybrids, new combinations, new distri- will be included in the revision of the butional records and synonyms added Index ol American Palms. when it is since 1936. According to my totals, published. there are 82 genera and 1,439 species It is interesting to note that more (including subspecific taxa) native to than one-third (4BB) of the known spe- the New World. Palms known only from cies of New World palms are distributed cultivation are not included in this list. in . Of this total, the genera Bac- It should be pointed out here that such tris (L49) and Geonoma (91) comprise a compilation leavesmuch to be desired one-half the number of Brazilian spe- since severallarge genera,e,g, Chamae- cies. Colombia. and Venezuela d,orea, Geononrn and. are cur- with 294, I44 and 106 species, respec- rently being monographed, whereas a tively, have the next richest palm floras. number of other genera, such as li- Cuba, with 89 species,has an unusually phanes, Astrocaryurn, Bactris, Cocco- large palm flora for a country its size; , Desmoncus,Euterpe, and Schee- however, the genera Copernicia with 24 lea, are in need of taxonomic revision. and with 35, account for Furthermore, continued exploration of about two-thirds of the species. In Cen, such countries as Brazil, Colombia, tral America, outstanding palm floras Peru. Venezuela.and will un- are found in Costa Rica (BI), Guate- doubtedly alter the total number of palm mala (76), Mexico (74) and Panama taxa. (72). Table I lists the names of all of the Bolivia, with 48 species,has a rela- genera I recognizealong with the num- tively poor palm flora comparedto other ber of species{or each. If a familiar countries of similar size such as Vene- is not on the list, it has been re- zuela, Colombia and Peru. This could duced to synonymy. For example,I am be due to insufficient exploration or to including Arecastrum, Arihuryroba, its being a greater distance from the Barbosa,Lytocaryum, and.Microcoelurn equator than the others. On the other under the genusSyagnrs; and the gen- hand, smaller countries like era Guilielma, Pyrenoglyphis and Yuyba (55), British Guiana (45) and Trini- are to be found under Bactris. dad (37) have a fair number of palms From the above list of palms, the for their size. Argentina (7), Uruguay geographic distribution of species for (3) and Chile (2) havevery poor palm r96sl GLASSMAN: DISTRIBUTION 133

Table I Genera and Species of American Palms

Cenus No. ol Species Genus No. ol Species Acanthococos 4 Leopoldinia 4 Acoelorrhaphe I I Acrocomia 28 Manicaria 4 Aiphanes 37 Markleya I Allagoptera 6 Mauritia 6 Ammandra I Mauritiella I5 Asterogyne 2 Maximiliana 10 Astrocaryum 52 Metasocratea I 29 Morenia t1 Bactris 254 Neonicholsonia I. Barcella I Oenocarpus T7 Brahea ,7 Opsiandra I Butia 9 Orbignya 24 Calyptrogyne II Parajubaea 2 Calyptronoma n Parascheelea 2 Catoblastus 15 Pholidostachys 2 Catostigma 2 Phytelephas T4 Ceroxylon 20 Polyandrococos I Chamaedorea 99 Prestoea t2 3 Pseudophoenix , Chrysallidosperma I Raphia I Coccothrinax 50 Reinhardtia I Colpothrinax I Rhapidophyllum I Copernicia 29 Rhyticocos I Corozo I Roystonea T7 Crysophila B 25 Desmoncus 67 Scheelea 43 Dictyocaryum 6 Serenoa I Erythea 9 Socratea T2 Euterpe 52 Syagrus 47 Ga,ussia 2 Synechanthus 6 Geonoma 24L Taenianthera t0 Haitiella I Tessmanniodoxa 2 4 Thrinax t2 Hyospathe I8 5 lriartea ,7 Washingtonia 2 Iriartella 2 Welfia 2 Jessenia 5 Wendlandiella 3 Juania 1 Wettinia 5 Jubaea I Wettiniicarpus 2 Kalbreyera I .l Totals Genera 82 Species1,439 134 PRINCIPES [Vol. 9 floras. This can probably be attributed other native palm. In the northern hem- to the great distance from the equator. isphere, at approximately 35o N. Lati- Iu,ania australis (Mart.) Drude, from tude (at the level of North Carolina, Juan Fernandez Islands (belonging to Arkansas and Oklahoma), Sabal rninor Chile) at about 35o S. Latitude, appar- (Jacq.; Pers. probably ranges farther ently ranges farther south than any north than any other native species. Table II Geographic Distribution No.ol No. ol No.ol No. ol Country Ginera Species Country Genera Species United States 9 1"3 Dominica 6 B Mexico IB 74 Martinique 6 6 Guatemala 22 76 St. Lucia 4 4 British Honduras I7 34 St. Vincent 2 2 El Salvador 5 D Barbados 1 I Honduras I6 27 Grenada 3 3 Nicaragua 1t 27 Tobago 6 8 Costa Rica 23 B1 Trinidad r5 37 Panama 23 72 Curacao I I Bermuda I I Colombia 50 294 Bahamas 5 5 Ecuador 20 55 Cuba t6 89 Peru 34 TM Jamaica 7 T2 Chile 2 2 Navassa Island 2 2 Venezuela 30 106 t3 20 British Guiana 1B 45 Puerto Rico 9 IO Surinam 9 23 ,7 Virgin Islands 2 3 French Guiana l4 Anguilla I I Brazil 39 48B Saba 2 2 Bolivia 23 48 St. Christopher 2 2 Paraguay 10 25 Barbuda I t Uruguay 3 3 .7 Antigua I I Argentina D Guadeloupe 6 6 The Vallde De Mai And The Coco-De-MerPalm J. F. G. Ltounnr The small British Colony of the Sey- the granitic.island of Praslin - Vall6e chelles, in the Indian Ocean, which is de Mai, Fond Ferdinand and Anse only I57 miles in area and consistsof Marie-Louise - the first is the best central granitic and outer coral islands, and the most worthwhile to visit. It was is renowned the world over for being acquired by the SeychellesGovernment the home of the coco-de-merpalm. in 1948. Of the three coco-de-merreserves in This reserve.which is a little less than