PITTIER PLANTS FROM COLOMBIA AND CENTRAL AMERICA. 451 



large and appearing to the naked eye, on dry specimens, as so many black dots; main 

 nerve prominent on the lower face, groovelike on the upper face. Flowers solitary 

 at the ends of the branchlets. Sepals ovate-lanceolate, unequal, acute at the tip, 

 often slightly constricted at the base, in our specimens measuring from 3 to 4.5 mm. 

 in length with a breadth of 1 to 2.5 mm. Petals obovate, rounded at tip, short- 

 unguiculate, persistent, 8 to 9 mm. long, 3 to 3.5 mm. broad, the 5 basal veins branch- 

 ing dichotomously into the lamina. Stamens 16 to 20, 5 to 7 mm. long, shortly adnate 

 at the base. Ovary ovate, 3-grooved outside, 3-celled, about 3 mm. long; styles 3, 

 3 to 3.5 mm. long, slightly protruding above the stamens. 



Except for the stamens being shortly adnate, our specimens agree closely with 

 Keller's description of Mr. Donnell Smith's plant, distributed by the latter under the 

 name of II. mexicanum. 



Guatemala: Volcan de Agua, 3,899 v 



meters ( ?), flowers, April, 1890, Donnell vdj^fiifck \a / 



Smith distribution, no. 2147; same lo- 

 cality, but at about 3,000 meters, Shan- M^xj^W~ pj /B (J 

 non, flowers, June, 1892, Donnell Smith *v v .J.J hi W tS 

 distribution, no. 3626; upper slopes of 

 the same volcano, alt. about 3,750 me- 

 ters, Pittier 45, flowers, March 22, 1905. 



Mammea americana L. Sp. PI. 512. 

 1753. Plates 90, 91. 



This is a beautiful middle-sized ever- 

 green tree (10 to 12 meters high), with 

 an oval crown of dense, dark green 

 foliage. The trunk usually divides at 

 a short distance from the ground into 

 several vertical or little diverging limbs. 

 These in turn give birth to smaller 

 branches, which are opposite and spread 

 at a more open angle. On these grow 

 the ultimate leaf and flower bearing 

 twigs. The leaves are thick, not very 

 large (10 to 14 cm. long), obovate or 

 obovate-oblong, cuneate at base and 

 narrowing into a short, broad petiole; 

 the secondary veins are numerous, 



parallel, and anastomosed by means of many transverse venules. The flowers are 

 borne solitary on the nude twigs or in the axils of leaves; they are polygamous and 

 rather large (about 4.5 cm. in diameter), and both the male and bisexual are found 

 on the same tree. The free stamens are very numerous, with pale yellow anthers. 

 The ovary is ovoid, 2-celled, with two ovules in each cell; the style is short and 

 bears a broad, 2 or 4-lobulate stigma. The fruit is a large berry, 10 to 15 cm. in 

 diameter when ripe; it has a thick skin and a fibrose-pulpy mesocarp, and contains 

 2 to 4 large stones with a rough, towy-fibrose tegument. 



Common names: Mamey (Spanish America in general, a name that is said to have 

 "originated in the Tafno language of Haiti); mamey de Cartagena (Panama, according 

 to Seemann); English, mammee, mammee-applc (English West Indies); French, abricot 

 de Saint Domingue, abricotier d'Amerique; Brunka, thp; Tirub, sru (both Costa Rican 

 dialects); Misquito, run (eastern coast of Nicaragua); Cuna, m&mi, perhaps the real 

 origin of the Spanish name. a 



a See also Lanessan, Les plantes utiles des colonies francaise; Cook and Collins, 

 Economic Plants of Porto Rico (Contr. Nat. Herb., vol. 8); Jumelle, Cultures colo- 

 nial es, vol. 2; Pittier, Plantas usualea de Costa Rica. 



Fig. 78.—Sterculia costarkana, floral details, c, An- 

 drophorum; b, lateral view of stamen; c, gynopho- 

 ram; d, section across ovary; e, ovules;/, hairs from 

 those covering base of androphorum and gynopho- 

 rum: g, hair from those covering ovary, a, c, and 

 d, Scale 6; b, scale 16; e, scale 24; /and g, scale 100 



