466 CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE NATIONAL HERBARIUM. 



base, angular, 3 to 3.5 mm. long; anthers dorsifix, deeply cordate, bifid at the tip, 

 2 to 2.7 mm. long; staminodes 6, longitudinally plicate, each spreading into an ovate' 

 angulose, irregularly dentate-laciniate leaflet, 3.5 to 4 mm. long, but alternately 

 broad and narrow. Pistil about 7.5 mm. long, obscurely 10-sulcate; ovary semiglJ- 

 bose, grayish-pubescent, 10-celled; style glabrous, slightly exserted. 



Type in the U. S. National Herbarium, no. 592583, collected in forest close to the 

 seashore at Piuta near Port Limon, September, 1899, by Henry Pittier. Flowers. 

 Same in Instituto fis. geog. Costa Rica (no. 16012). 



This noble tree is conspicuous by its towering proportions among the constituents 

 of the littoral forest of the Atlantic coast. Its closest affinities seem to be with At. 

 longifolia from Brazil, but it has very pronounced features of its own. It is the first 

 species of the genus reported from Central America. 



Mimusops spedabilis is one of the nisperos of the Costa Ricans and the Jamaica immi- 

 grants call it bully tree, on account of the likeness of its wood to that of M. svleroxylon 

 Pierre. The wood is hard, heavy, and dark, and, as it is very resistant to water and 

 wet soil, it is in great demand for railroad ties. 



