434 CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE NATIONAL HERBARIUM. 



KEY TO THE SPECIES. 



Leaves entirely glabrous. 



Female flowers pedicellate L i aurim . 



Female flowers sessile . 



Bracts of female flowers silky, with ciliate margin 2. 0, rigida. 



Bracts of female flowers hairy, with smooth margin 3, 0. laevis. 



Leaves more or less hairy. 



Male receptacles sessile 4 q asi>era 



Male receptacles pedunculate. 



Leaves with entire margin 5 . tovaremis. 



Leaves with more or less distinctly dentate or sinuate 

 margin . 

 Leaves distinctly sinuate-serrate; male perianth 2- 



lobulato 6. O.caucana. 



Leaves obscurely sinuate. 



Leaves obovate-oblong, large; stipules 20 to 30 mm. 



long; pedicels 5 to 10 mm. long 7. 0. grandifolia. 



Leaves elliptic, middle-sized; stipules 6 to 7 mm. 



long; pedicels 3 mm. long 8. O.falcifolia. 



The area of the genus extends on both sides of the Andes from 

 Peru to Costa Rica and eastward to the Guianas. 



1. Olmedia laurina Baill. Adansonia 11: 305. 1875. (An Perebea?.) 

 Colombia: Triana. 



2. Olmedia rigida Klotzsch & Karst. Linnaea 20: 524. 1847. 

 Venezuela: In forests around Tovar, Karsten. 



3. Olmedia laevis Ruiz & Pav. Peruv. Chil. Prodr. 129. pi. 28. 1794; Klotzsch & 



Karst. loc. cit. 524. 

 Peru: Ruiz. 

 Ecuador: Eggers 15746. 



4. Olmedia aspera Ruiz & Pav. Syst. Peruv. Chil. 257; IT. B. K. Nov Gen & Sp 



7: 162. pi 6SS. 1825. FlGURE 60 



Peru: Ruiz. 

 Ecuador: Ruiz. 



5. Olmedia tovarensis Klotzsch & Karst. loc. cit. 526. 

 Venezuela: In the forests around the colony of Tovar, Karsten. 



Costa Rica: Suerre, plains of Santa Clara, alt. 300 meters; male flowers only, April, 

 1896, Donnell Smith 6781. Identification doubtful. 



a. Olmedia caucana Pittier, sp. nov. Plates 78, 79. Figure 61. 



A small tree, 4 to 6 meters high, with erect-ascending limbs; bark of the branch lets 

 brown, covered with a short, fugacious pubescence. 



Leaves distichous, rather large, provided each with a pair of caducous stipules; 

 stipular scars joining at acute angle opposite the insertion of the petiole. Petioles 

 hairy, rounded, thick, 8 to 10 mm. long. Leaf blades elliptic, cuneate at the base, 

 abruptly narrowed into a long tip, inequilateral, the thinner half narrower and less 

 rounded, 15 to 22 cm. long, 5 to 7 cm. broad, scabrous on both faces; main nerve and 

 primary veins hairy and very prominent underneath; margin irregularly sinuate- 

 serrate. Stipules lanceolate, broad at base, acuminate, purplish brown, 10 to 12 mm. 

 long, ecarioua and minutely ciliate on the margin, slightly pubescent outside along 

 the midrib. 



