PITTIER — PLANTS FROM COLOMBIA AND CENTRAL AMERICA. 127 



Costa Rica: At the fork of the Puerto Viejo and Sarapiquf rivers, in the northern 

 plains, altitude about 100 meters, Biolley, male flowers, January, 1893 (Institute 

 fis.-geog. Costa Rica no. 7418). 



FRANTZIA, A NEW GENUS. 



Mr. Cogniaux also published in lS<)2 a the diagnosis of a new Costa 

 Rican Cucurbitacea, which, on account of superficial appearances only, 

 he placed near his Cyclanthera oerstedii. This is his C. pittieri. On 

 examining the numerous specimens distributed under that name by 

 the Institute) fisico-geografico, most of which are in the National 

 Herbarium, it is found that they represent at least two distinct species 

 and furthermore that they can not belong to the genus Cyclanthera, 

 on account of the 5 anthers, nor to Elateriopsis, since the ovary con- 

 tains a single pendulous ovule. The fruits are not oblique and the 

 ovate, flattened seeds do not recall those of either of the above-named 

 genera. Moreover, both male and female flowers exhibit a feature 

 quite new, as it seems, among the related Tropical American Cucurbi- 

 taceae, in the shape of ten nectaries forming a depressed-rounded 

 cushion at the base of the reproductive organs. The male and female 

 flowers scarcely differ except in the sexual features. 



These plants are closely related to Sechium on account of the simi- 

 larity of the andrcecium and the fruit. But their cushion-like 

 nectarial apparatus, the relative smallness of the seed, and other par- 

 ticulars that can be seen in the respective descriptions exclude them 

 from that genus, as well as from Sicyos, although they show also 

 marked affinities with the species of the section Atractocarpos 6 of 

 that genus. For these reasons, we have created for them the new 

 genus Frantzia, named after the late Dr. Alexander von Frantzius, a 

 noted investigator of the fauna and physical geography of Costa Rica. 



Frantzia Pittier, gen. now 



Flowers monoecious. Male inflorescence racemose. Calyx and corolla adnate, 

 rotaceous. Calycinal teeth 5, triangular or thick and rounded. Segments of the co- 

 rolla 5, spreading, ovate-lanceolate. Nectaries 10, forming a spheroidal cushion at the 

 bottom of the corolla, and each one opening on the periphery by a low arched hole. 

 Stamens 5, the filaments connate in a single column; anther cells more or less free and 

 forming an irregular head. Pollen grains globose, minutely echinate. Pistillodium 

 none. Female flowers solitary in the same axils with the male ones. Calyx and 

 corolla as in the latter. Openings of the nectaries larger. Staminodes none. Ovary 

 fusiform, 1-celled; ovule single, pendulous from the apex of the cell; style short; 

 stigma capitate, 4-lobed. Fruit fibrous or woody, ovate-rounded, more or less acu- 

 leate, 1-seeded, apparently indehiscent. Seed ovate, depressed, with smooth testa. 



Two or more Costa Rican herbaceous species, climbing, glabrous or almost so; leaves 

 deeply emarginate at the base, palminerve, entire or more or less deeply 3 to 5-lobate. 

 Flowers small, whitish or yellowish. 



« Bull. Soc. Bot. Belg. 30:276. 1892. 



bin Sicyos warmingii Cogn., a Eusicyos, we even note at the bottom of the corolla 

 a cupuliform appendage that looks singularly like a nectarial structure of the same 

 class as the one found in our Costa Rican plants. See Mart, Fl. Bras. 6 4 : pi. 33. 1878. 



