PITTIER — PLANTS FROM COLOMBIA AND CENTRAL AMERICA. 445 



sunza and chaute, and in British Honduras monkey apple. The fruit, which looks 

 and tastes like anything but an apple, is certainly worth more than the predilection 

 of a monkey, being rich and sweet with a slight acidulous flavor, and, according to 

 Mr. G. N. Collins's judgment, superior to the common zapote. 



Explanation or Plate 86.— Stems with leaves and fruit. From a photograph by Cook, Collins & 

 Doyle, taken at Nieoya, Costa Rica, in 1903. Natural size. 



Licarria arborea Seem. Bot. Voy. Herald 118. pi. 25. 1852-53. 



This tree doe3 not seem to have been noticed again since Seemann's memorable 

 botanical explorations in Panama in the years 1846 to 1849. Its occurrence in Guate- 

 mala is therefore worthy of mention. But for a few minor details, our specimens agree 

 closely with the original description, founded, as it seems, on Cuming's samples in the 

 Kew Herbarium collected in Veraguas about 1829. 



Licania arborea is a stately tree in its bearing, somewhat like Anacardium rhino- 

 carpus. Under the name of roble bianco it has a limited use as heavy timber. The 

 following are additional data completing Seemann's description and showing at the 

 same time the discrepancies noticed in our specimens. 



A tree 20 to 25 meters high. Floriferous branchlets mostly glabrate, verruculose. 

 Mature leaves 10 to 15 cm. long, 4.5 to 10 cm. 

 broad, glabrous, coriaceous, almost shiny above, 

 glaucous and beautifully reticulate, with the main 

 and secondary nerves very salient beneath; tips 

 mostly rounded, often apiculate or also subemar- 

 ginate. B&chis of inflorescence and calyx of 

 flowers thickly brown- tomentose. Sepals 1 to 1.2 

 mm. long, 1.5 mm. broad at base. Petals very 

 small (about 1.2 mm. long, 0.6 mm. broad, hairy- 

 ciliate and early deciduous. Stamens unequal, 

 1.5 to 2 mm. long, adnate for about 0.7 mm. of 

 their length at the base, villous. Style nearly 3 

 mm. long. 



Guatemala: Dry hills of the valley of Ingiatie 

 (Chiquimula), alt. about 900 meters, flowers, 

 January 24, 1907, Pittier, 1899. 

 Couepia floccosa Fritsch, Ann. Naturhist. Hofmus. Wien 5 : 12. 1890. 



Plates 87, 88. Figure 69. 



A medium-sized tree, with gray, scaly bark, and spreading branches. 



Leaves persistent, petiolate. Petioles 5 to 10 cm. long, rather thick, subcana- 

 liculate, pale brownish tomentose. Leaf blades ovate, 5 to 8 cm. long, 2.5 to 5 cm. 

 broad, subattenuate at base, rounded or obtusely acuminate at tip, rather thick, dark 

 green and smooth above, whitish and tomentose with prominent main and secondary 

 nerves beneath. Stipules small (5 mm. long), acute, deciduous. 



Inflorescence racemose, simple or compound, the individual racemes 3 to 7 cm. long, 

 in the axils of the leaves on the newly formed branchlets, 15 to 50 flowers to the raceme. 

 Rachis, peduncles, and pedicels tomentose and sulcate (in the dry condition). Bracts 

 at the base of the racemes short, triangular, acute, deciduous. Flowers pedicellate, 

 in alternate, dichotomous clusters, 3 to 9 in each cluster. Floral bracts narrowly 

 lanceolate, 5 to 6 mm. long. Pedicels 5 to 7 mm. long, articulate in the middle. Recep- 

 tacle tomentose, sulcate, funnel-shaped or eubcylindrical about 4 mm. long, with a 

 lateral, tubular cavity, smooth inside and provided at the throat with long, stiff, 

 retrorse hairs. Sepals ovate, obtuse, 4 mm. long, 2.5 to 3 mm. broad. Petals pinkish 

 yellow, 4.5 to 5 mm. long, 3.5 mm. broad, more or less sparsely ciliate. Stamens 15 to 

 20, almost all fertile, inserted on a ring 1 mm. broad, covered inside with retrorse hairs; 

 filaments 5 to 6 mm. long (above the ring), slender, glabrous; anthers small, rounded. 

 Ovary densely hairy; style about 7.5 mm. long, hairy on its lower half. 



Fig. 69.— Couepia floccosa, section and 

 details of flower, a, Schematic lon- 

 gitudinal section of the flower; b, 

 petal; c, stamens, showing also ad- 

 nate part at the base; d, ovary and 

 style. Scale 3. 



