199 



shorter; flowers solitary in the nxils; peduncles 2.5 era. or more long, bibracteate 

 near the basis of tlio (lowers; calyx: campanulato, 6 nun. high, 12-nerved, 6-lobed, the 

 lobes ovate, acute, 2mm. long; petals 0, purple, lOmra. long; stamens about 12, much 

 shorter than the petals, about equal, inserted in a single row near the middle of the 

 calyx; style elongated much longer than the stamens, nearly as long as the petals; 

 ovary shortly stipitate, orbicular, 4-celled; the carpels apparently splitting to the 

 very top. 



Collected by Mr. C. G. Pringle on dry plains near Tehuacan, State of Puebla, 

 August 2, 1897 (No. 6758). 



This species is closely related to X. longipes Gray and the two may represent a 

 new generic type. 1 The dehiscence of the capsule is uncertain in Mr. I'ringle's 

 plant, and it has also heen uncertain in X. longipes; but Professor Coulter states in 

 the Botany of Western Texas- that the capsule opens by a little lid. 



Ranunculus madrensis Kose, sp. now Platk XXV. 



leather slender, erect, from a cluster of somewhat thickened roots; 18 to 26 cm. 

 hiyh, glabrous below; basal leaves erect, long-petioled (4 to 10 cm. long); blade 

 linear to linear-oblong, cuneato at base, obtuse at apex, with coarse distant teeth, 3 

 to 5 cm. long, 4 to 8 mm. wide, thickish, strongly nerved; stem leaves reduced to a 

 few simple or 3-lobed linear bracts; stem bearing 1 to 4 small ilowers; peduncle slen- 

 der, 6 to 10 cm. long, hairy above, especially just under the ilower; sepals purplish 

 or yellowish, about half the length of tho petals, glabrous, deciduous; petals about 

 10, yellow, nearly obovate, rounded at apex, 8 mm. long; receptacle hairy; akenes 

 small (2 mm. or less long), lenticular, glabrous, tipped with a slender persistent style 

 equal in length to the akene. 



Collected by J. X. Kose on the top of the Sierra Madre between Santa Gertrudis 

 and Santa Teresa, Territorio do Tepic, altitude about 2,000 meters, August 8, 1897 

 (No. 2102); and in the State of Zacatecas, altitude about 2,615 meters, August 18,1897 

 (No. 2375). I found this plant common in damp grassy meadows on the 11a t tops of the 

 two ranges of the Sierra Madre, and it doubtless has a wide distribution, although 

 I have not been able to identify it with any one of the 25 Mexican or Central Ameri- 

 can species hitherto described. In fact it is not near any of the Mexican species 

 which I have seen, bnt it most suggests tho R. vagans of Watson. It is nearer, how- 

 ever, our Western United States species, 11. aUsmaefolius. 



Explanation of Plate. — Fig. 1, a flowering plant; fig. 2, a petal; fig. 3, an akene. Fig. 1, natural 

 size; fig. 2, scale 5; fig. 3, scale 2. 



Samyda mexicana Rose, sp. nov. 



Shrub 15 to 25 dm. high; branches rather short and still', with grayish bark, the 

 younger ones moro or less pubescent, very leafy: leaves 3 to 7 cm. long, oblong, 

 rounded or somewhat narrowed at base, shortly acuminate and obtuse, at first softly 

 pubescent on both sides, in age more scantily and coarsely, becoming more or loss 

 reticulated beneath, the margin bearing small distant and gland-tipped teeth, the 



1 As the genus Nesaea is now understood we have only tho two above species in 

 America. The following key seems to separate them : 



* Leaves auriculafe at base, the margin revolute; petal* small (6 mm. long); calyx tube 



4 mm. long, twice longer than the lobes ; stamens inserted at the base of the calyx tube; 

 ovary sessile (?). 

 N. LONGIPES Gray, PL Wright. 1:68. 1852. 



* * Leaves not auriculafe at bane, the mat gin not revolute; petal* large (10 mm. long); 



calyx tube (J mm. long, three times longer than the lobes; stamens inserted near the 

 middle of the calyx tube; ovary stipitate. 

 N. pringltci Rose, supra. 



- Contr. Nat, Herb. 2 : 112. 1891. 



