8G CONTRIBUTIONS hHOU THE NATIONAL HEKEAEIUM. 



overlook tliciu. Flowers were collected, and later Doctor Purpus 

 sent nic fruit. These show clearly that this plant is distinct from both 

 Dasylirion and Nolina, thouo^h much nearer the latter. 



About Tehnacan two remarkable spi?cies of Beaucarnea wore discov- 

 ered, both of which seem to be undoscribcd. One of them has a most 

 singular trunk, at first nearly globular but afterwards sending up a 

 slender stem which becomes more or less branched. The swollen base 

 takes on a multitude of shapes, but is always very large as compared with 

 the rest of the plant. One such measured at O.C meters above the . ^se, 

 6.3 meters in circumference, and atl.S meters above the base contracted 

 abruptly into the slender stem proper. The basal expansion is made 

 up of very loose cellular tissue which when dead and dry is aln ost as 

 light as cork. This club-footed base suggests the specific name used 

 elsewhere in this paper for this species. The aspect of the plant is 



XXIII 



Dd 



in cultivation, is not often met with even in our larger hei-baria. This 

 species was found to be very common in eastern Hidalgo and the drier 

 parts of Qu(n-etaro. It forms a veiy distinct trunk 120 to 150 cm. 

 long below the crown of leaves and sends up a flowering stem 3.6 to 

 4.5 meters long. The leaves arc very unlike those of all the other 

 species, being very thick and narrow and not prominently saw-toothed. 

 They are often 3 meters long. In some parts of Queretaro the natives 

 use them as a thatch for their houses. They call the plant junquillo. 

 Material of tttfe small pai-asite Pilostyles (or Apodanthes) of the 

 Katilesiaccae was collected at five localities, two near Ixmiquilpan, one 



Q 



Tehuacan. "Whether more 



than one species was obtained I ha\e not yet determined, but there 

 were two or three hosts, each being some species of Paroscla. 



According to Doctor Robinson Pilostyles has been reported only 

 three times from North America, once by Geo. Thurber and twice by 

 Dr. C. G. Pringle. Material was collected, however, by Mr. Fred- 

 erick V. Coville in Texas in 1904 and by Dr. E. Palmer in San Luis 

 Potosi in 1905. This genus, in North America at least, is always 

 parasitic on some genus of Viciaceae, generally on Parosela. The 

 plants are minute, reduced simply to flower parts, which may account 

 for the fact that the species have been so very rarely collected. 

 Unless one has seen specimens or is looking particularly for them he 

 will readily pass them by as secretions or insect work. 



AH new species hero described are based upon specimens in the 

 United States National IIcrl)arium and when two or more collectors 

 are cited the type specimen is definitely stated. 



The line drawings are the work of Miss Juliet C. Patten, except 

 that plate 25 was made by the late Frederick A. Walpole and plate 40 

 bv Homer D. House, , 



