92 CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE NATIONAL HERBARIUM. 
The specimens cited above are only a part of those examined by the writer. The 
species appears to be very abundant in the Greater Antilles and along the eastern 
coast of Central America, occurring chiefly as a weed in waste or cultivated ground. 
It has always been confused with Gomphrena decumbens Jacq., described in 1804. It 
is remarkable that a plant so common in the West Indies has never received a name, 
but apparently no one has ever questioned its identity with Jacquin’s species. 
Gomphrena decumbens was described! from cultivated specimens whose origin was 
not known. The description is ample and fortunately is accompanied by an excellent 
plate. There is no doubt that it applies to a plant which is common from eastern and 
central Mexico to Guatemala and is found also in South America. So far as the writer 
knows, it does not occur in the West Indies. It differs from Gomphrena dispersa in 
having the crests of the bractlets widest much below the apex, if they are perceptibly 
widest anywhere, the flowers thus appearing pointed or acuminate. Moreover, the 
bractlets are much longer than the flowers, while in G. dispersa they equal or are 
shorter than the perianth. In the latter species the crests are widest at or near the 
apex of the bractlets, and the flowers thus appear obtuse or merely acutish. In 
Gomphrena decumbens, furthermore, the flowers are very frequently tinged with red, 
or are yellowish, while in the proposed new species they are a dull, clear white. It 
is very probable that G. dispersa is to be found also in northern South America, but 
so far no specimens have been seen nor do any of the descriptions of species from that 
region appear to apply to it. 
Gomphrena parviceps Standley, sp. nov. 
Gomphrena decumbens pringlei Stuchlfk, Repert. Nov. Sp. Fedde 11: 156. 
1912, in part, not G. pringlei Coult. & Fish. 1892. 
Prostrate or procumbent annual, much branched, the stems 10 to 30 cm. long, 
slender or stout, often tinged with red, appressed-pilose; leaves numerous, subsessile, 
the blades oblong or spatulate, 1 to 3.5 cm. long, 4 to 10 mm. wide, rounded or obtuse 
at the apex, acutish at the base, green, appressed-pilose beneath, glabrate above; 
spikes solitary or glomerate, terminal or axillary, subglobose, 7 mm. in diameter, each 
spike or cluster of spikes subtended by 2 or several sessile leaves, these usually 2 to 3 
times as long as the spikes; bracts broadly ovate, acuminate; bractlets 3 mm. long, 
scarious, white, tinged with pink, twice as long as the bracts, narrowly cristate at the 
apex, the crest obscurely denticulate, pink or white; perianth conspicuously exceed- 
ing the bractlets, the lobes oblong, obtuse, truncate, or emarginate at the apex, the 
outer ones subcoriaceous, white or pink, glabrous, the inner ones thin, bright green 
except along the margin, very sparsely lanate; stamen tube about equaling the 
perianth; style elongate, the stigmas filiform; seed ovoid, 1.5 mm. long, reddish 
brown. 
Type in the U. 8. National Herbarium, no. 354471, collected in the Valley of 
Mexico, Federal District, Mexico, altitude 2,190 meters, October 3, 1899, by C. G. 
Pringle (no. 8251). 
Related to Gomphrena pringlei Coult. & Fish., but in that species the calyx lobes are 
acute and the perianth merely equals the bractlets instead of exceeding them. 
Gossypianthus brittonii Standley, sp. nov. 
Caudex much branched both above and below the surface of the soil, the branches 
stout or slender; stems numerous, prostrate, 4 to 9 cm. long, slender, lanate when 
young but soon glabrate; basal leaves petiolate, the blades oblanceolate, 6 to 8 mm. 
long, 1.5 to 2 mm. wide, obtuse or acutish, pilose above, pilose-sericeous beneath; 
cauline leaves short-petiolate, the blades orbicular to oval, 2 to 4 mm. long, obtuse 
or rounded at the apex, glabrate above, pilose beneath; flowers glomerate, the glomer- 
* Jacq. Pl. Hort. Schinbr. 4: 41. pl. 482. 1804. 
