PITTIER—PLANTS FROM COLOMBIA AND CENTRAL AMERICA. 75 
Chas. Patin in September, 1899, and it was planted out in its present position in 
October, 1902; Hope, with its dry, hot climate, is probably not the most favorable 
situation for this tree. 
The late M. Patin was a planter and Belgian consul at Medellin, Colombia, and I 
believe the species comes from that neighborhood. M. Patin was keenly interested 
in plants, especially those of an economic nature, and on his rather frequent visits 
to Europe or the United States he always stopped at Jamaica and came to see us at 
the Gardens and usually brought something to add to our collections. 
He thought very highly of this Sapium as a probable source of rubber and showed 
me samples of rubber produced by it. 
He was very anxious to introduce the species to Jamaica, and I find that he brought 
four plants in 1899, but two were dead and one was very weak and finally succumbed. 
(September 22, 1910.) 
The examination of the specimens showed that the tree could not be Sapium utile 
Preuss, since it belongs to the subsection Cucullata (Pax & Hoffm.); so, in a letter 
answering those of August 11 (cited above) and 17, and subsequent to that of Septem- 
ber 22 of Mr. Harris, I expressed the opinion that the species might be either “‘S. 
obtusilobum Muell.-Arg. or S. hemsleyanum Huber,” coinciding in the first surmise 
with the tentative identification made at Kew. Further study showed that, while 
our specimens agreed in almost every detail with the incomplete description of the 
former by Mueller, they differed in several ways from S. hemsleyanum Huber. The 
petioles, namely, are longer, the petiolar glands more distant from the blade, the 
marginal teeth rather distant and obsolete, the primary veins less numerous, the floral 
spikes shorter and more slender, the basal bract of the male flowers cut straight or 
hardly rounded, with a fimbriate margin, etc.—all these differences found while 
comparing our Jamaican specimens with nos. 7509 and 7674 of Jenman from British 
Guiana. 
But again S. hemsleyanum is now considered by Dr. Pax! to be the same as, or, 
at the utmost, a simple form of, a species of broad scope, S. hippomane Meyer, in which 
our Jamaican specimens can also be included. And as, on the other hand, S. hippo- 
mane and S. obtusilobum do not seem to differ in any essential details, the texture of 
the leaf being rather the result of certain environmental conditions, I feel justified in 
considering also the name S. obtusilobum Muell.-Arg. as merely another synonym for 
S. hippomane Meyer. 
The above description and, unless otherwise indicated, the accompanying drawings 
have been made from our Jamaican materials. 
EXPLANATION OF PLATES 44, 45.—PIl. 44, A, B, C, from photographs taken by C. B. Doyle in Wash- 
ington. About natural size. Pl. 45, from a photograph furnished by Hon. H. H. Cousins, as men- 
tioned in the text. 
ANACARDIACEAE. 
A NEW SPECIES OF SPONDIAS FROM COSTA RICA. 
Spondias nigrescens Pittier, sp. nov. FIGureE 82. 
A forest tree with rounded crown (Tonduz in sched.). Branchlets thick, covered 
with a purplish brown, smooth bark, showing at the end the prominent scars left by 
the fallen leaves. 
Leaves caducous, 5 to 17-foliate, pubescent. Rachis 15 to 30 cm. long, broadly 
flattened above, rounded beneath, the petiole 5 to6 cm. long. Leaflets subopposite, 
distant about 3 cm. on each side of the rachis; petiolules of the lateral leaflets 7 mm. 
long, that of the terminal leaflet up to 1 cm. and over; leaflet blades ovate to elliptic- 
oblong, moderately oblique, rounded or subcuneate at the base, acuminate and acute 
at the tip, 3.5 to 10 cm. long, 1.5 to 3.5 cm. broad, the smallest ones at the base and 
the narrowest at the end of the leaf; margin entire; primary veins parallel, arcuate, 
10 to 14 on each side of the main rib. 
1 In Engl. Pflanzenreich IV. 1474: 232. 1912. 
