dh ^ 
"Jh. comm —— ЙИ» с. тестш, ШЧ M 
MR. SPRUCE ON FIVE NEW PLANTS FROM EASTERN PERU. 199 
rimas (spatio 2 lin. sejunctas) a septorum marginibus angulo 45? pro- 
cedentes, sursum directas, sed ad septorum latitudinis vix tertiam 
partem attingentes, funiculo brevissimo inserta, sc. 4 ad utramque 
lineam, in laminas 24 septo parallelas colligata, superiora et lateralia 
inferioribus et interioribus incumbentia, ala tenuissimá 2х1 unc. 
cincta* ; nucleo 31x3 lin. obcordato plano. Teste tenuis firmius- 
cule membrana exterior in rugas creberrimas irregulariter transversales 
elevata, interior ab exteriori embryoneque demum separabilis. Em- 
bryo planus, exalbuminosus; cotyledones oblate, profunde emarginatee, 
basi cordate ; radicula brevis, subulata, hilo proxima. 
I first saw the tree above described in January 1851, at Ja- 
nauarí, in the angle between the Rio Negro and Amazon, where it 
had been raised from seeds brought from Peru; but it had no 
flowers or fruit; and I did not again see it until I arrived at 
Tarapoto in June 1855, when I at once recognized it growing in 
the gardens, and here and there in the open grounds near the 
‘town. Ihave not yet seen it truly wild, nor can I learn whence 
it was originally brought. It is planted in all the villages I have 
seen in the Maynensian Andes, and is especially noticeable in the 
pretty English-looking village of Morales, where it forms scattered 
clumps on the verdant plain, accompanied by oranges and limes; 
by the Ciruelo (Spondias, sp.) ; the Siamba palm (an undescribed 
G/nocarpus with clustered stems); picturesque old Huingos 
(Crescentia Cujete), whose branches are hidden by a dense coating 
of mosses, ferns, and orchids; and several species of terrestrial 
figs, whose tortuous trunks are enveloped in a network of their 
own roots. It is a small tree, scarcely larger than Sambucus 
nigra, which it much resembles in its thick cracked bark, though 
its regularly forked and somewhat rigid branches give it other- 
wise a different aspect. When out of flower, it might be passed 
over for a Tecoma, to which it is undoubtedly closely allied; but 
the green flowers, the large lax plieate calyx, and the broad pods 
traversed by twelve deep furrows are marks that at once distin- 
guish it from that genus. The inhabitants of Maynas dye the 
eotton cloths of their own manufacture a permanent blue by 
simply boiling them along with Yangua leaves. About every 
three months every leaf that can be got at is stripped off; and the 
trees seem not to suffer from being thus denuded ; but they rarely 
put forth flowers till they grow beyond the reach of spoliating 
hands. 
* Ala seminum inferiorum margine plurisinuata ; funiculis seminum supe- 
riorum, quibus ala rectangularis margine subintegra adest, per sinus alarum 
inferiorum egredientibus. 
