230 CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE NATIONAL HERBARIUM. 
EXPLANATION OF PLATES 54-58.—Plate 54, whole leaf and inflorescence, A, of 
Aerostigma equale; B, of Wettinella quinaria. From field photographs taken at Cor- 
doba, Cauca, Colombia, December, 1905. Plate 55, tip of leaf of Acrostigma equate. 
From a photograph taken in Washington. Reduced. Plate 56, bases of pinns, A, of 
Acrostigma equale; B, of Catostigma radiatum; C, of Wettinelia quinaria. All natural 
size. From photographs of dried specimens taken in Washington. Plate 57, young 
Spathes and female flowers of Acrostigma equale. From a field photograph taken at 
Cordoba, Cauca, Colombia in December, 1905. Natural size. Plate 58, fruit and female | 
flowers of Acrostigma equale. From field photographs taken at Cordoba, Cauca, Colom- 
bia, December, 1905. Natural size. All photographs taken by C. B. Doyle, 
CATOSTIGMA gen. nov. 
Trunk solitary, rather short (6 meters), slender (7 to 8 em. thick), taper- 
ing upward ; surface smooth, distinctly ringed; internodes rather short (16 cm.), 
becoming shorter above (10 ¢m.). 
Leaves with rather short sheaths (108 cm.), densely brown-tomentose without ; 
petiole rather long (34 cm.), cylindrical, smooth, and naked; pinne triangular, 
the lower unequally divided into 5 to 7 obliquely diverging segments, each 
segment inserted on a fleshy pulvinus; tips of pinne irregularly notched; both 
surfaces smooth; terminal pinne rather narrow, completely united, the rachis 
continued to margin. 
Inflorescence with 5 spathes, 3 short basal ones and 2 complete ones; 
also two or three spatheless ring-scars; spadix compound, divided below the 
middle into a few (about 3) long, tapering, flexuous branches bearing irregu- 
larly scattered flowers and fruits; surface not hirsute but very minutely 
granular-hispid ; female flowers inserted in shallow rounded depressions, each 
subtended by two rudimentary male flowers, one on either side. 
Female flowers with sepals subtriangular, somewhat broader than long. 
slightly connate at base; petals triangular, pointed, twice as long as broad, 
about 4 times as long as the sepals, distinctly separated at base, in texture 
firmly coriaceous, distinctly 5-costate on the back, the middle rib strongest ; 
staminodes 6, of firm texture, conic-subulate, about half as long as the sepals, 
strongly reflexed, opposite and alternate with the petals; pistils distinctly 
3-lobed, the fertile carpel conic-cylindric, about 3 times as long as broad, greatly 
exceeding the others (about 7 times as long), twice as long as the petals, 
stigmas about twice as long as broad, triangular-conic, sharp-pointed, strongly 
recurved, strongly rugose-tuberculate; rudimentary male flowers accompanying 
the female containing a cluster of minute staminodes. 
Fruits narrowly oval, symmetrical, about two and one-half times as long as 
broad; surface even, minutely granular-tuberculate, bearing the persistent 
stigmas at the base, close to the persistent calyx, one lobe of this distinctly 
larger than the other two: mesocarp of a rather firm corky texture, composed 
of coarsely cellular material and stout irregular fibers; inner surface of 
mesocarp showing an open-meshed network of distinct, slender fibers similiar 
to the fibers of the endocarp, but entirely separate, often with a layer of gelati- , 
nous material between; endocarp delicately membranous, the fibers very 
delicate, not very numerous, those of the inner layer parallel at the base on the 
side opposite the embryo, anastomosing into a fine network on the other side. 
Seed narrowly oval, its surface smooth and even or with very faint impressions ; 
albumen uniform except for a median canal and a semielliptic cavity at the 
base, the cavity as broad as long, covered by a rather thick lid of albumen to 
which the disk-like or top-shaped embryo is attached. 
Type species, Catostigma radiatum. 
Distinguished from Catoblastus Wendl. by the narrow spathes, slender in- 
florescences, and large, strongly recurved, sessile stigmas, and by the presence 
of rudimentary male flowers on the female inflorescences. 
