444 CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE NATIONAL HERBARIUM. 



covered with white, rounded lenticels; younger shoots leaf -bearing, the bark deep 

 brown or purple, densely dotted with minute, reddish white, prominent lenticels. 



Leaves alternate and distichous, unusually long and narrow, perfectly glabrous. 

 Petioles thick, 10 to 15 cm. long, shallow-canaliculate and of a dark color. Leaf 

 blades coriaceous, elliptic-lanceolate to narrow-lanceolate, 10 to 25 cm. long, 3 to 6 

 cm. broad, acute at base and tip, more or less shiny above, glaucous beneath; main 

 nerve thick, forming a broad, shallow groove above and rather prominent below; 

 secondary nerves numerous (20 to 25), arcuate. Stipules geminate, short, broad at 

 base and acuminate, irregularly ciliate. 



Inflorescence broadly paniculate, terminal, regularly alternate-branched, very 

 much condensed and provided with large, deciduous, purplish dark bracts and 

 bractlets before blooming, broadly expanded, with rather slender brancblets during 

 the anthesis. Panicles 10 to 35 cm. long, with pubescent branchlets and pedicels. 

 Bracts (at base of main branchlets) narrowly lanceolate, 3.5 to 4 cm. long, 0.5 to 

 0.8 cm. broad, velvety -pubescent outside, smooth inside; bractlets (at base of flower 

 clusters) also narrowly lanceolate, 0.5 to 1 cm. long, 0.2 to 0.5 cm. broad. Floral 

 pedicels 1 to 2 mm. long. Receptacle canose-tomentose outside, provided inside on 

 the Btaminal rim with a thick crown of brown woolly hairs. Sepals canose-tomentose, 

 broadly ovate and acute, 1.8 to 2 mm. long, 1.6 to 1.8 mm. broad. Petals obovate, 

 2.5 to 3 mm. long, 1.5 to 1.8 mm. broad, narrow at base, acute at tip, ciliate, decidu- 

 ous. Stamens 15 to 18; filaments subequal, glabrous. Ovary and lower half of 

 style densely hairy. 



Fruits very large, 1 to 3 to each panicle, 15 to 20 cm. long, 10 to 14 cm. in diameter, 

 with a dark brown, verrucose skin, covered with white lenticels. Inside flesh yellow, 

 juicy and sweet, somewhat fibrous. Seed usually single, ovate-oblong, flattened, 

 6 to 8 cm. long, 4 to 4.5 cm. in largest diameter; cotyledons large and fibrous, radicle 

 small. 



Panama: Cuming 1272 (Herb. Kew.). 



Costa Rica: Llanos de Curres, near Boruca, alt. 50 meters, Pittier, flowers, March 

 4, 1898 (Institute fis.-geog. Costa Rica, no. 12102); Nicoya, Cook, Collins & Doyle, 

 fruits, May 22, 1903, U. S. National Herbarium; Pittier, specimen of young fruit 

 (Instituto fis.-geog. Costa Rica, no. 17131). 



Nicaragua: Neighborhood of Granada, cultivated, Levy 222, in Herb. Kew. 



Guatemala: Mazatenango (Suchitepequez), alt. 400 meters; Heyde & Lux, flowers, 

 January, 1894, Donnell Smith 6421; Gualan (Zacapa); fruit December 30, 1905, 

 Kellerman 5670. 



British Honduras: Belize Botanical Station, Campbell. 



But for a few small discrepancies and a difference in the vegetative condition, 

 our Costa Rican specimens agree with both Hemsley's description and the Guate- 

 malan specimens of Heyde and Lux. The early deciduous bracts and bracteoles had 

 not yet been noticed. The cup-like receptacle was described as hairy inside, whereas 

 it is smooth or pubescent, and made into a tight-closed cell by the heavy hair crown 

 on its rim. The distichous arrangement of the leaves and branchlets of the inflo- 

 rescence is another remarkable feature of this tree. 



It is probable that Licania -platypus is a deciduous tree, the flowers of which are 

 borne on the foliated shoots produced in the same season. It attains very large 

 dimensions and, when isolated in the open, has a stately appearance. Although I 

 have seen it at many places in Guatemala (Zacapa, Jocotan), Salvador (Sonsonate, 

 Nahuizalco, Sta. Tecla, Auachapan), and Costa Rica (Guanacaste, Santo Domingo, 

 Baru, Boruca, Talamanca), it was never met with in a truly wild state. A curious 

 fact is that the Brunka and Terraba Indians of Costa Rica do not seem to have any 

 original expression to designate it and call the fruit simply zapote. Among the 

 Bribri Indians of Talamanca, the tree is known under the name of bekom. In Guana- 

 caste and Nicaragua it is called sonzapote, in Salvador drbol de pan, in Guatemala 



