98 CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE NATIONAL HERBARIUM. 



Cymes axillary or terminal, often compound, pedunculate, always shorter than the 

 leaf; flowers numerous on each cyme, rather large. Peduncles thick and stiff 5 to 

 15 mm. long, pubescent. Pedicels 3 to 4 mm. long, also minutely hairy Calyx 

 hairy outside, about 1.6 mm. long; lobules rounded-triangular, with a scariose, ciliate 

 margin. Corolla 3 to 3.5 mm. long, tubulose-campanulate, deeply parted white 

 inside, brownish outside; lobes lanceolate, 2.5 to 3 mm. long, acute, very hairy inside 

 on the margin and tip, the center glabrous. Corona inserted near the middle of the 

 stamens, the scales about 1 mm. long, 0.4 mm. broad at base, membranous, acutely 

 triangular, not surpassing the tips of the apical membranes of the anthers. Stamens 

 2.2 mm. long, the apical membrane acutely ovate (0.55 mm. long, 0.45 mm broad) 

 Retinaculum short and broad (about 0.18 mm. long, 0.10 mm. broad), with thin 

 wing-hke, transparent margins. Caudicles slender, 0.15 mm. long. Pollinia pendent' 

 pear-shaped, 0.18 to 0.22 mm. long. Pistil smooth; styles about 1.2 mm. long. 

 Follicles not seen. 



Guatemala: San Miguel Uspantan, Department of Quiche, at an altitude of 

 about 2,000 meters, Heyde & Lux, flowers, April, 1892 (Donnell Smith Herbarium 

 no. 3060, type); Mongoy, Laguna de Guija, Department of Jutiapa, at an altitude of 

 1,330 meters, Heyde dc Lux, flowers, April, 1894 {Donnell Smith Herbarium no 6348) 

 Thisspecies was first distributed under the name of Metastelma pedunculate Decaisne,o 

 and then transferred to M. barbigerum Scheele . b The characteristics given by Decaisne 

 for the first plant certainly do not apply to the specimens collected by Heyde and 

 Lux, but neither do these agree with Scheele's description and the Lindheimer 

 specimen in the National Herbarium. The stems and branehlets are rather thick 

 and not glabrous, the cymes are not few (4 or 5)-flowered, the pedicels are distinctly 

 pubescent, the broader lobules of the corolla are scarcely barbate and on the margin 

 only, the gynostegium is much longer, etc. And if we admit with Corry, e Malme d 

 and others that the translatoria are in themselves sufficient to characterize species 

 we are forced to the absolute conclusion that there exists no near kinship between 

 the Texan and the Guatemalan species. We reproduce here our camera lucida 

 drawings of the translatoria of both M. barbigerum and M. deeipiens In the first the 

 retinaculum is 0.2 mm. long, 0.07 mm. broad, the eaudieles are thick, and the pollinia 

 long pear-shaped. 



Metastelma sepicola Pit tier, sp. nov. Figure 5 



A trailing, subvoluble vine, with slender, rounded, ramified stems. Intornodes 

 2.5 to 3.8 cm. long. 



Petioles slender, about 5 mm. long, sulcate, minutely hairy above. Leaf blades 

 ovate, 15 to 30 mm. long, 5 to 15 mm. broad, acuminate, rounded at base, entirely 

 glabrous except above on the main nerve, here pubescent, generally with two small 

 glands at the insertion of the petiole, dark green above, grayish green below; margin 

 entire, minutely and sparsely ciliate. 



Cymes axillary, pedunculate; flowers small, up to 8 in each cyme. Peduncles 

 slender, 5 to 15 mm. long, minutely hairy. Pedicels ] to 2.5 mm. long Calyx 

 perceptibly verrucose outside, about 1 mm. long; lobes ciliate, rounded at tip, 

 0.7 mm. long, 0.55 mm. broad, with a searious margin; calycinal glands finger-like' 

 single. Corolla about 2.75 mm. long, campanuliform, white, the lobes about 1 6 

 mm. long, 0.75 to 1 mm. broad, lanceolate, emarginate at tip, glabrous outside 

 provided inside with two papillose thickenings confluent at tip and leaving a smooth 

 center and margin. Corona scales inserted at the base of the anthers, equal to or 

 scarcely longer than the gynostegium, arcuate, spathuliform, with the margin invo- 



« DC. Prodr. 8: 514. 1844. 



*> Linnaea21: 760. 1848. 



c Trans. Linn. Soc. Lond. Bot. II. 2: 173-207. 1881-1887. 



d Ofv. Vet. Akad. Forh. 1900: 845. 1900. 



