PITTIER—PLANTS FROM COLOMBIA AND CENTRAL AMERICA. 147 
Of these 17 species, one, B. guianensis Klotzsch, which has been 
published in name only, is possibly identical with some of the Vene- 
zuelan types or with B. negrensis. I have not seen Jacquin’s descrip- 
tions of the four species in the Fragmenta, but the descriptions in the 
Prodromus are certainly too scanty to be of any use. B. neglecta is 
a name only. 
GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION OF THE SPECIES. 
The above list shows that out of 17 species, 10 were described origi- 
nally from Venezuela. That country, then, has a right to be consid- 
ered the cradle of the genus, so much the more as it is very probable 
that further researches in that little explored country will result in 
the discovery of new types. For instance, it may be stated that 
among about a dozen specimens remaining from Dr. Vargas’s Her- 
barium, which I saved from utter destruction by bringing to Wash- 
ington, there is a Brownea collected May, 1828, near Tocuyo, in the 
State of Lara, where it is known under the name of “‘palo de sangre.” 
The leaves of this plant apparently do not agree with those of any of 
the described ‘species. They are 2 to 6-jugate, with glandular but 
otherwise glabrous leaflets, much smaller than is usual in the genus, 
and long-pediceled flowers. Unfortunately the latter are all in such 
a fragmentary condition that no attempt could be made to analyze 
them. On the other hand, as already stated, it is not unlikely that 
the number of these Venezuelan species will have to be reduced after 
a careful examination of the types and of new material. 
According to Grisebach, Brownea latifolia is also found in Trinidad, 
which has besides a supposed endemic type, B. speciosa, found by me, 
however, in Venezuela in 1913. Brownea rosa Griseb. (not B. rosa- 
del-monte Berg) of St. Vincent, may be a distinct type restricted to 
the Lesser Antilles—unless it is one of the Venezuelan species under 
cultivation. The Brownea rosa-del-monte of Fawcett’s Guide to 
Castleton Gardens, Jamaica, is Brownea ariza Benth. and it is not 
unlikely that this is also the plant referred to by Taubert, when 
he gives Jamaica as the origin of B. coccinea. 
Only one species has, to my knowledge, been reported from Brit- 
ish Guiana and none from the country farther east. As Browneas 
generally grow in the foothills and gorges of low mountains and 
seldom, if ever, in the proper coastal plain, and as the hinterland of 
the Guianas has been very little explored botanically, it is easy to 
understand how these plants can have hitherto escaped observation. 
The same applies to the hinterland of Brazil, where Martius discov- 
ered Bentham’s B. negrensis. The area of this species seems to mark 
the southernmost limit of the genus, since B. cauliflora has been trans- 
ferred to the new genus Browneopsis. 
