MEXICAN AND CENTRAL AMERICAN SPEOIES OF SAPIUM. 169 
9. Sapium sulciferum Pittier, sp. nov. Fiaure 10. 
A medium-sized tree with flattened crown; branchlets grayish, longitudinally 
striate; stipules small, ovate; petioles 1 to 2 cm. long, and rather slender; petiolar 
glands small, roundish, at the attenuate base of the blade; leaf blades 5 to 8 cm. 
long, 2.5 to 4 em. broad, coriaceous, paler on the lower side, oval-elliptic, shortly 
attenuate, ending in an obtusely angular tip, the margin obscurely sinuate; spikes 
androgynous, lateral or in clusters (generally 4) at the ends of limbs; floral glands 
deciduous; pistillate flowers numerous (16), part remaining undeveloped; staminate 
part of spike caducous, the fructiferous part 5 to 8 em. long; capsules 9 to 10 mm. 
in diameter, 7 to 8 mm. high, coriaceous, distinctly pedicellate, depressed, ending 
with the terete base of the style; seeds lenticular, 3.5 mm. thick, 5 mm. in diameter, 
tuberculate, reddish brown. 
Fig. 10.-—Sapium sulciferum. a, Leaf; b, leaf base, showing glands; c, fruits; d, seeds. 
Costa Rica, along the main road at La Palma, in the zone of perennial rainfall, 
altitude 1,500 meters, A. Tonduz, August 15, 1898, fruit (Inst. fis.-geog. Costa Rica, 
no. 12428; U. 8. National Herbarium, no, 577588, type). 
This number is cited by Hemsley @ as near to S. aereum Klotzsch, from Peru, 
‘“but the leaves want the metallic sheen, the persistent base of the styles is terete, 
and the brown seeds are only about half as large as those of S. aereum.’’? Moreover, 
the leaves are smallerand their apical glands less developed, the union of the petiole 
and the lamina forms a small, infundibuliform groove, on the margins of which the 
petiolar glands stand, and the capsules are smaller with a shorter polar axis. 
«Hook. Ic. PL IV. 27%: under pl. 2682, 
