302 CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE NATIONAL HERBARIUM. 



probably will soon disappear. This species is much smaller than any of the other 

 three species of Urbinia and has much more highly colored leaves. 



TJrbinia purpusii Rose, sp. nov. 



Acaulescent; leaves forming a very compact rosette, resembling in a most remark- 

 able way certain species of Haworthia, broadly ovate, acuminate, 3 cm. long, nearly 

 as broad at base, glabrous, the surface peculiarly mottled with brown; flowering 

 stem more or less reddish, 30 em. long, slender, bearing numerous small, ovate, acute, 

 appresscd leaves; inflorescence a few-flowered (6-flowered in the only one examined) 

 raceme; pedicels of lowermost flower 6 mm. long, the upper ones shorter still; sepals 

 small, ovate, acute, green, appressed to the flower; corolla somewhat urn-shaped, 

 10 to 12 mm. long, pinkish without, except toward the tip, this and the inner surface 

 pale yellow; mouth of corolla small; petals acute, each bearing a large pocket at the 

 base; stamens 10, the alternating ones nearly or quite distant; the other 5 borne on 

 the adjoining petals just above the pocket; ovaries short, stigmas green. 



Type U. S. National Herbarium no. 615402, collected by the Purpus brothers 

 (C. A. and J. A.) in southern Mexico in 1900. 



Villadia diffusa Rose, sp. nov. 



Perennial, much branched and somewhat woody at base; branches glabrous, some- 

 what angled in dried specimens, purplish; leaves alternating, in young shoots form- 

 ing small rosettes or closely overlapping and covering the stems, triangular to ovate, 

 usually broadest at base, obtuse, 6 mm. long, glabrous; inflorescence an open spike, 2 

 to 12 cm. long; flowers subtended by a leaf-like bract; sepals 2 to 3 mm. long, ovate, 

 obtuse, green; corolla about 6 mm. long, pinkish, the lobes acute, the tube about one- 

 fourth the whole length; stamens borne on the corolla tube; styles slender. 



Type U. S. National Herbarium no. 574298, collected by G. N. Collins and C. B. 

 Doyle on Sierra Blanca, Chiapas, Mexico, January 20, 1907 (no. 131). 



MENISPERMACEAE. 



A NEW SPECIES OF MENISPERMUM. 



In 1907 Dr. C. G. Pringle collected in northern Mexico a species of 

 Menispermum. This was especially interesting since the genus had 

 not heretofore been reported from Mexico. Doctor Pringle at first 

 took it to be the common United States species, M. canadense, but a 

 careful comparison with that species shows that it is abundantly 

 distinct. 



Menispermum mexicanum Rose, sp. nov. 



Stem climbing, slender, slightly pubescent; petioles 3 to 5 cm. long; blade ovate, 

 entire, 3 to 5-lobed, 4 to 7 cm. broad, mucronate-tipped, thin, slightly pubescent on 

 both sides but more so beneath, here paler but never glaucous; flower not known; 

 peduncles short (2 cm. long); clusters of fruit rather large and dense; drupes bluish 

 black, 5 mm. broad. 



Type U. S. National Herbarium no. 462662, collected by Dr. C. G. Pringle in the 

 Sierra Madre near Monterey, Mexico, July 9, 1907 (no. 10378). 



This species differs from M. canadense in its leaves not being glaucous beneath, in its 

 larger drupes, and in its much more southern range. 



