PITTIER—PLANTS FROM COLOMBIA AND CENTRAL AMERICA. 173 
Phyllonoma triflora Pittier, sp. nov. Figure 12, 
A bushy shrub or small tree, 2 to 3 meters high. Branchlets ascending, flexuous, 
glabrous. 
Leaves numerous, alternate, exstipulate, glabrous. Petioles 7 to 8 mm. long, can- 
aliculate, decurrent in two narrow wings; leaf blades 6 to 7 cm. long, 2 to 2.5 cm. broad, 
elliptic, acute at base, long-acuminate, coriaceous, 
yellowish green above, pale green beneath; primary 
vein apparent as a dark line above, very promi- 
nent beneath; secondary veins anastomosing along 
the margin, and connected by numerous transverse, 
ramified venules, forming a prominent network 
on the upper face of the leaf, but scarcely visible 
underneath; margins subrevolute, entire for the 
first third of their length, with acute, distant teeth 
on the upper two-thirds, these usually 4 on one side 
and 5 on the other side. 
Inflorescence in sessile clusters of 3 flowers each 
on the midvein of the blade, at about two-thirds 
: : Phyllonoma triflora. a, Open flower; 
of the total length of the leaf from the base of , petal: c, d, stamens; e, style and 
the petiole. upper section of disk. a-e, Scale 18. 
Flowers pedicellate, very small, greenish yellow, 
opening in succession. Pedicels about 2 mm. long, gradually thickening toward the 
upper end, glabrous, with a small rounded bract at base of each. Lobes of calyx 
short, broadly triangular, acute. Petals 1.5 mm. broad at base, ovate-triangular with 
rounded tips. Stamens short, glabrous, inflected on the disk before anthesis, hang- 
ing between the petals later; filaments subulate; anthers broadly ovate-cordate, 
basifix. Disk large, yellow, covering the ovary and concrescent with it. Ovary 
inferior, two-celled (?); style none; stigmas 2, short, emerging from the disk. Ovules 
ventrifix, 3 or 4 in each cell. 
Berry globose, fleshy, shortly pedicellate, showing at the top the 5 teeth of the con- 
crescent calyx and the two stigmas. Seeds 3 to 6, subreniform, with a coarse, brown 
aril, about 2.5 mm. long. 
Costa Rica: La Palma, in the Central Cordillera, altitude 1,500 meters, H. Pittier, 
flowers and fruits, October, 1902 (Instituto ffs.-geog. Costa Rica no. 16553; type 
U.S. National Herbarium no. 578054). 
The type of the genus is Phyllonoma ruseifolia Willd., a species from Peru, elabo- 
rately described and figured by Kunth” under the name of Dulongia acuminata, In 
1858, Turezaninow published two species; one, collected by Galeotti (no. 7197) in 
the forests of Oaxaca, Mexico, at an altitude of 1,700 to 2,000 meters, he named Dilongia 
laticuspis; the other, a native of the mountains of Pamplona in the Colombian Depart- 
ment of Santander, whence it was brought by Funk and Schlim (no. 1657), is his 
D. wntegerrima. 
The first species differs from the type mainly by the indentation of the margin, which 
begins near the base, instead of being limited to the upper third, and also by its 
acumen ‘‘articulate on the blade, and parted to the main nerve.’’ In the U.38. 
National Herbarium there is a species brought from around Teponapa, in the moun- 
tains near Papalo (State of Oaxaca, Mexico), where it grows at an altitude of 500 
meters above sea level (collected by Gonzalez and Conzatti, no. 764), that agrees 
with Turezaninow’s description as to the indentation of the leaf, but does not show 
any distinctive character in its long and acutely pointed tips. It differs also from 
P. ruscifolia in having the inflorescences affixed at the base of the acumen, and not 
on the blade proper; the marginal teeth, moreover, instead of being broad and short, 
as shown in the H. B. K. plate, are narrow and finely mucronate. In all probability 
these specimens correspond to Dilongia laticuspis Turcz. 
Fig. 12.—Flower and flower parts of 
ain H.B. kK. Nov. Gen. & Sp. 7: 76. pl. 623, 1826. 
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