96 CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE NATIONAL HERBARIUM. 
Of our three Costa Rican genera, Couroupita is an old and well- 
defined one, established by Aublet,* while the two remaining have 
undergone a considerable number of changes as to their systematic 
position. Originally all the species divided now between Leeythis 
and Eschweilera were included in the first, created by Loefling in 
1758.” Von Martius was the first to show, although in a confused 
way, the difference in the mode of suspension of the seeds, and to 
propose the second genus, which appeared for the first time in De 
Candolle’s Prodromus ¢ in 1828. Endlicher ¢ again brought together 
all the species under Loefling’s genus, and this view was generally 
accepted until Miers published his important memoir on the subject 
in 1874. This botanist showed conclusively the value of certain 
structural differences of the flower and the fruit for the rational 
limitation of Lecythis, and from the excluded species he formed his 
three genera Eschweilera, Chytroma, and Jugastrum, which were 
subsequently found to differ from each other to a much less extent 
than they do together from Lecythis, and which have in consequence 
been reduced by Niedenzu to mere sections of one single genus, for 
“which the old name Eschweilera, given by von Martius, has been 
retained. Of the two Costa Rican species of that genus, one cer- 
tainly belongs to the section Eueschweilera, while I place the second 
with doubt, until the flowers have been investigated, in the section 
Chytroma. 
KEY TO THE COSTA RICAN GENERA. 
Seeds sessile and erect in the fruit; small trees_-o ~~~ _____ 1, Eschweilera, 
Seeds hanging from long, mostly fleshy funicles, 
Fertile stamens both on ring and helmet of androphorum: 
fruit  indehiscent; seeds small, ovate, surrounded by 
a juicy pulp. ~ oe _ 2, Conroupita, 
Fertile stamens only on ring: fruit dehiscent: seeds 
large, fusiform, hard-shelled, without pulp but with 
large fleshy funicles_.- ~~ ~~~ 3. Lecyuthis, 
Eschweilera Mart.: DC. Prod. 3: 293, 1828.¢ 
Flowers perigynous; calyx adnate; petals ovate, caducous: fertile stamens 
borne only on the ring; ovary 2-celled, with few anatropous ovules in each 
cell; seeds shaped more or Jess like the segments of a sphere, showing the 
embedded raphe when dry. 
Both our Costa Rican species seem to be small or medium-sized trees, with 
rather narrow crown and large coriaceous leaves. 
“Pl. Gui, 2: TOS, 1775. 
® Iter Hispan, 159.1758. 
63: 295. 
7Gen. Pl. 1285. no. 6332. 1836-1850. 
°e As explained above, De Candolle’s definition of this genus is not altogether 
clear, and this is the probable reason why Endlicher rejected it and reincor- 
porated its several species in Lecythis. As early as 1887, however, von Mar- 
