136 CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE NATIONAL HERBARIUM. 
This was described as a new species by Rusby in 1893 under the name of Chomelia 
tenuiflora Benth. “‘in Herb. Kew.’’ Bentham, however, had published a species of 
this name many years before, based upon Schomburgk’s no, 314 from British Guiana. 
Schomburgk’s plant, a specimen of which is found in the U. 8. National Herbarium, 
is similar in general appearance to the present species, but is easily distinguished by 
the few flowers, short peduncles, attenuate corolla lobes, and the long, filiform calyx 
lobes, twice as long as the tube or much longer. Rusby, at the time of publishing a 
second species under the same name, lists two other specimens besides Bang’s no. 
342, namely, Matthews’s no. 1944 from Peru and a specimen collected by Pearce at 
Santa Cruz. It is from one of these, presumably, that Bentham’s name was taken. 
It is not probable that so discriminating a botanist as Bentham would have confused 
so different a plant with that of British Guiana, and it would seem that there must be 
some confusion of data in the present instance. 
The fruit is not present upon either specimen seen by the writer and was not 
described by Doctor Rusby in his publication of Chomelia tenuiflora, but he described 
it later ! from Bang’s no, 1738 in the following words: 
‘Nearly 1 cm. long, 2-2.5 mm. broad, oblong, the base slightly narrower, the apex 
subtruncate, tipped by the conspicuous cup of the calyx-limb, which about equals 
the strongly recurved teeth, blackish, minutely hispidulous, irregularly and rather 
lightly costate, slightly curved.’’ 
Chomelia boliviana is related to C. pohliana Muell. Arg.,? described from Brazil, but 
differs in its looser, more ample cymes, abundant pubescence, less acute corolla lobes, 
and deciduous stipules. 
Chomelia brachyloba Standley, sp. nov. 
Branches slender, reddish brown, the older ones glabrate, the younger ones finely 
pubescent with short, appressed, whitish or brownish hairs, armed with few stout 
sharp spines 6 to 10 mm. long; stipules subulate, 3 to 4 mm. long, brown; leaves 
numerous, the slender petioles 10 to 12 mm. long; leaf blades elliptic-oval to oval or 
broadly ovate, 32 to 80 mm. long, 20 to 35 mm. wide, abruptly acute, the tip about 
3 mm. long, attenuate or abruptly acute at the base, thin, bright green on both sur- 
faces, sparsely pubescent on the upper surface with rather long, slender, appressed 
hairs, more abundantly pubescent beneath, especially along the veins, with similar 
hairs, the lateral veins prominent, parallel; peduncles slender, 17 to 35 mm. long, 
densely pubescent with fine appressed hairs, bearing a congested cyme of 6 to 10 
sessile or subsessile flowers; bracts half as long as the calyx or less; calyx 1.5 to 2 mm. 
long, densely appressed-pubescent below, sparsely pubescent above, the lobes trian- 
gular-ovate to lanceolate, rather obtuse, much shorter than the tube, unequal; corolla 
tube slender, 14 to 22 mm. long, densely sericeous, the lobes 5 to 6 mm. long, linear 
or narrowly lanceolate, abruptly attenuate to the slender tips; fruit oblong, 10 to 12 
mm. long. 
Type in the U. S. National Herbarium, no. 679833, collected in the Sabana de 
Juan Corso, near Chepo, Province of Panama, Panama, at an altitude of 60 to 80 
meters, October, 1911, by H. Pittier (no. 4673). 
Here belongs also a specimen collected in the region of Santa Marta, Colombia, at an 
altitude of 45 meters, by H. H. Smith (no. 392). This collection was distributed as 
C. tenuiflora Benth. Comparison of these two specimens with one of the type collec- 
tion of C. tenuiflora, Schomburgk’s no. 314 from British Guiana, in the U. 8. National 
Herbarium, shows that the proposed species is well distinguished by its long peduncles, 
numerous flowers, short spines, and more abundant pubescence, and especially by the 
short calyx lobes. In C, tenuiflora the calyx lobes are filiform-subulate and twice as 
1Mem, Torrey Club 6: 48. 1896. 
2 See Mart. Fl. Bras. 6°: 34. pl. 4. 1881. 
