STANDLEY—TROPICAL AMERICAN PHANEROGAMS, 93 
ules much longer than the subtending leaves; bracts ovate to orbicular-ovate, nearly 
equaling the sepals, obtuse or rounded at the apex, white, scarious, glabrous; sepals 
2.5 to 3 mm. long, lance-oblong, acute, faintly 3-nerved, green along the nerves, the 
margins white and scarious; filaments linear, dilated at the base; utricle oval; seed 
oval, 1.2 mm. long, brown, shining. 
Type in the herbarium of the New York Botanical Garden, collected on arocky hill 
in a palm barren, Santa Clara, Cuba, April, 1912, by N. L. Britton and J. F. Cowell 
(no. 13318). 
Apparently there are two species of Gossypianthus in the West Indies. One of 
these, G. lanuginosus, was described from Santo Domingo, and is known also from 
Mexico and Texas. In the Bernhardi Herbarium (Herb. Mo. Bot. Gard.) there is a 
specimen from Santo Domingo, labeled Achyranthes piloselloides Poit., which agrees 
in all respects with the common Texan plant. The Cuban Gossypianthus is appar- 
ently distinct in having obtuse rather than acute or acuminate bracts and bractlets, a 
much branched caudex, and much smaller leaves. 
Iresine acicularis Standley, sp. nov. 
Stems erect, stout, very sparsely pubescent with short slender hairs, the internodes 
10 to 23 cm. long; petioles slender, 1 to 5.5 cm. long; leaf blades ovate or broadly 
ovate, 6.5 to 20 cm. long, 3.5 to 10 cm. wide, or those within the inflorescence some- 
what smaller, rather abruptly long-attenuate or acute, rounded or obtuse at the base 
and abruptly short-decurrent, thin, bright green, very sparsely villous on the upper 
surface with short remote soft yellowish white hairs, similarly pubescent beneath 
and furnished in addition with numerous appressed shining amber-colored or bright 
yellow acicular hairs, villous-ciliate, rather prominently veined, but the veins slender, 
diverging at angles of from 50 to 70 degrees; inflorescence a broad, dense, somewhat 
leafy panicle, 25 cm. long and 15 cm. broad, the rachises sparsely villous and bearing 
in addition numerous stout, acicular, glistening amber-colored or yellow hairs, these 
most abundant at the base of the spikelets; spikelets alternate, pediceled or sessile, 
densely flowered, stout, 4 to 12 mm. long; bracts white, rounded-ovate to narrowly 
ovate, acute, from half as long to fully as long as the sepals; sepals about 1.5 mm. long, 
narrowly oblong, acute, those of the pistillate flowers 3-nerved, the flowers furnished 
at the base with copious long white wool; staminal cup not lobed; utricle shorter than 
the sepals; seed suborbicular, 0.5 mm. in diameter, dark reddish brown, shining. 
Type in the U. 8. National Herbarium, no. 399603, collected on the Volcdn de 
Fuego, Department of Sacatepequez, Guatemala, at an altitude of 2,700 meters, Feb- 
ruary 20, 1905, by W. A. Kellerman (no. 4549). 
ADDITIONAL SPECIMENS EXAMINED: 
GUATEMALA: Near the Finca Sepacuité, 1902, Cook & Griggs 214. 
Costa Rica: Chirripé Farm, 1900, Pittier 16078. 
The proposed species is related to Iresine celosioides L., but is distinguished by the 
dentate bracts, and more strongly by the peculiar pubescence of the inflorescence. 
No other species of the genus is known to have trichomes of the same form. 
Iresine arenaria Standley, sp. nov. 
Erect perennial, suffrutescent at the base, much branched, the branches slender, 
erect-ascending, green, striate, glabrous; petioles slender, 4 to 5 mm. long; leaf 
blades linear to narrowly ovate, 2.5 to 4.5 cm. long, 2 to 12 mm. wide, acute or acumi- 
nate, obtuse to acuminate at the base, rather thick, deep green, glabrous; flowers 
polygamous, narrowly paniculate, the panicles open or congested, nearly naked, 4 to 
20 cm. long, the branches slender or stout, ascending, short, the spikelets few, short or 
elongate, pedunculate or sessile, the rachis densely lanate; bracts and bractlets 
rounded-ovate, obtuse or acutish, short-cuspidate, hyaline, whitish-stramineous, 
