MEXICAN AND CENTRAL AMERICAN SPECIES OF SAPIUM. 167 
nate; capsules slightly rugose outside, ligneous, dehiscent, rather large, the pedicels 6 
to 8 mm. long; seeds ovoid, 5 to 6 mm. long, 4.5 mm. thick, finely tuberculate, cari- 
nate at the end, this marked in the middle by a spiny tip. 
Mexico: Colima, altitude about 500 meters, Dr. E. Palmer, no. 92, July, 1897. 
(Econ. Herb. U. 8. Department of Agriculture; U. 8. National Herbarium, no. 
305158. ) ; 
The salient character of this species seems to be its extreme variability, making it 
difficult to give a very accurate description. Still, the rather long pedicels of the 
mature capsules and the form of the seed are pretty constant and constitute a sharply 
defined departure from the other Central American species. The seed characters 
appear again, with more or less variation, in S. mexicanum and in the only species 
known from Guatemala, the close aflinity of these forms being thus made evident. 
b 
FIG, 9.—Sapium pittier’ a, Leaf; b, leaf base, showing glands; ¢, seeds. 
In Hemsley’s description of S. /eferiflorum several particulars are mentioned that 
can be found also in specimens of S. pedicellatum, as the thick floriferous branchlets 
with thick pith, the lateral spikes with leafy peduncles, etc. But the former species 
decidedly differs by the striking size of its leaves and its axillary spikes. 
6. Sapium pittieri Huber, Bull. Herb. Boiss. I]. 6:350. 1906. 
Puate XV. Ficure 9. 
Tree 6 to 8 meters high, with yellowish gray branchlets; petioles about 1.5 em. long, 
canaliculate, the glands on the margin of the base of the lamina; leaf blades 5 to 7 cm. 
long, 4 to 5 em. broad, subcoriaceous, broadly elliptic, abruptly contracted at base, 
shortly but broadly acuminate with a slightly inflexed acumen; margin revolute, 
entire; secondary nerves moderately distant, prominent on the upper face; spikes 
terminal; capsules subsessile, or with very short (1 mm. long) pedicels, mucronate, 
