264 CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE NATIONAL HERBARIUM. 
certain species which appear to form connections with allied groups, 
so in the section Pilannona the type species, A. sericea Dunal, appears 
to be allied to the 6-petaled A. paludosa Aubl. and sometimes has 3 
imperfectly developed inner petals; while, at the opposite end of the 
series, A. jamaicensis Sprague approaches A. cherimola, belonging to 
the section Atta. Notwithstanding these connecting links, the group 
may be regarded as sufficiently distinct, and the species composing it 
are most conveniently set apart for study as a section by themselves. 
The section may be characterized as follows: 
ANNONA, section PILANNONA Safford. 
Flowers normally 3-petaled, spheroid or rarely oblong in bud, the petals valvate, 
thick, concave, and not keeled within nor triquetrous; receptacle convex, often 
clothed with short fine straight bristle-like hairs; stamens numerous, with the connec- 
tive expanded into a terminal head above the two parallel pollen sacs, the surface of 
the head being either minutely papillose or echinate, and in some cases bearing a 
number of erect or slightly curved hairs; carpels numerous, crowded, more or less 
covered with sericeous hairs, with club-shaped styles and minutely tuberculate or 
echinate ovoid stigmas. 
As compared with the common custard apples of commerce (Annona reticulata, 
A. cherimola, and their allies), the fruits of this group are small, in many cases no larger 
than a plum or peach and sometimes the size of a strawberry. In nearly all the spe- 
cies the surface of the fruit is velvety, especially during the early stages, and the seeds 
are surrounded by scant pulp. As the name indicates, the young growth of the type 
species and its close allies is sericeous or velvety, and the leaves of most of the species 
are more or less velvety or sericeous, at least on the lower surface. In a few cases 
they become glabrate at length. 
KEY TO THE SPECIES. 
Peduncles in clusters of 2 or 3; flower buds depressed-globose; 
leaves oblong-acuminate, membranaceous, clothed beneath 
with soft brown velvety pubescence. A small tree of British 
Guiana and northern Brazil. ..........0.0.......02220000-. 2. A. jenmanii. 
Peduncles solitary (in no. 1 sometimes geminate), 
Lower leaves of flowering branches orbicular; stigmas and con- 
nectives of stamens densely pilose or velvety. A small 
tree of Nicoya, Costa Rica... ................2.2......... 5. A. holosericea. 
Lower leaves not orbicular. 
Bracteoles of peduncles linear-lanceolate, acuminate; leaves 
small, long-acuminate, membranaceous, glabrate. A 
small tree of Panama.....................2......-.---. 9. A. acuminata. 
Bracteoles of peduncles not linear-lanceolate, acuminate. 
Peduncle usually 3 times as long as the petioles, slender, 
softly pilose and recurved in fruit; leaves ovate or ellip- 
tical, membranaceous, persistently soft-tomentose be- 
neath; fruit strawberry-shaped, without projecting 
points. A tree of southern Veracruz, Mexico......... 
Peduncles less than three times the length of the petioles. 
Leaves thickly tomentose beneath, oblong, acuminate; 
fruit covered with fleshy claw-like projections. A 
forest tree of Panama.................2..2..2-..-. 6. A. spraguei. 
we 
. A. longipes. 
