176 CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE NATIONAL HERBARIUM. 
minutely hairy when seen with a strong glass, each ending in a callose tooth, very 
small, deep orange-red at tip. Peduncles and pedicels also minutely hairy; main 
peduncles 2 to 3.5 cm. long, floral pedicels 1 to 1.5 mm. long. 
Flowers numerous, tetramerous, of a yellow-green color. Sepals distinct in two 
opposite pairs, orbicular, | mm. long, hairy outside. Petals obovate, 2 to 2.5 mm. 
long, 1.6 mm. broad, attenuate into a short claw. Disk cupuliform, thick, divided 
into 4 segments. Stamens | mm. long, alternate with the segments of the disk; fila- 
ments slender, erect; anthers subreniform, of a deep orange-red color, Pistil glabrous; 
ovary semiinferior, globose, 2-celled, the cells 1-ovulate; style 0.4 mm. long, divid- 
ing at tip into 2 flat, rounded stigmas. 
GUATEMALA: Department of Alta Verapaz, along the Cahabon River between 
Chimaxte and Cajval, altitude 200 meters, II. Pittier, no. 239, flowers, May 4, 1905 (U.S. 
National Herbarium no. 472895, type); on the hills around Secanquim, altitude 550 
meters, H. Pittier, no. 301, flowers, May 9, 1905(U. 8. National Herbarium no, 472964). 
This new species is intermediate between M. uragoga Jacq. and M. gaumeri Loesener. 
It is somewhat like the first in habit, but differs obviously from it by being almost 
entirely glabrous and in having larger leaves and more developed inflorescences. 
From MM. gaumeri it is easily distinguished by its elongate, smooth branchlets, obovate 
petals, and bifid style. 
EXPLANATION of PLATE XVIII,—a, Flowering branchlet; b, cyme; c, bract; d, tip of same enlarged 
to show terminal gland; ¢, petal; f, stamens; g, ovary and disk. a, Scale 4: b, ¢, e, f, scale 9; d, larger. 
Hippocratea (Cuervea) obovata Pittier, sp. nov. Figure 13. 
A small tree with divaricate limbs; 
floral branchlets opposite, short, thick, 
ry é almost perpendicular to their axis. 
Leaves opposite or in pairs at end of 
branchlets, petioles 3 to 4 mm. long, 
suleate, hispidulous. Leaf blade 5 to 
10 em. long, 2 to 3 cm. broad, gla- 
brous, discolor, i. e., light green above 
and pale brown beneath, obovate, or 
obovate-elliptic, narrow and distinctly 
rounded, broadly pointed; margin ob- 
as scurely sinuate, secondary nerves sub- 
opposite, generally 9 pairs on each leaf, 
arcuate and connected near margin. 
Inflorescence forming terminal di- 
chotomous cymes with 4 to 6 main mi- 
nutely hispid peduncles 15 mm, long. 
Pedicels short, hispid, with minute 
ao bractlets at base. Sepals 5, ovate- 
7 ft acuminate, 1.5 mm, long, 1.2. mm. 
é 
a 
broad, finely hispidulous or hirsute, 
ciate. Petals 5, ovate-elliptic, 4mm. 
long, 2.6 mm. broad, thick, carnose, 
aL fe f pale yellow and smooth, with a gland 
g§ opening in one or two longitudinal 
Fig. 13.—Leafand flower parts of Hippocratea obovata. slits on the upper face; disk obscurely 
a, Leaf; b, sepal; c,d, e, forms of petal; f, ovary and 5-lobed, cupuliform, carnose, about | 
asks o front an eae view of stamen. a, Natural mm. deep. Stamens 3. inserted inside 
Sizes 0 Fog, enlarged. the disk, filaments short, triangular, 
nearly 1 mm. broad at base and | to 1.2. mm. long; anthers extrorse, as broad or 
broader than the filaments. Ovary depressed, obscurely trilobulate; ovules not more 
than 6 in each cell; style very short; stigma indistinct. Fruit not known. 
