2 CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE NATIONAL HERBARIUM. 
and Miquel. Hemsley, in 1883, listed! 44 species of Ficus from 
Mexico and Central America, a number slightly in excess of that 
recognized by the present writer. 
The nomenclature of the Central American species has been found 
to be in a chaotic state, and the material in American herbaria, as a 
consequence, for the most part incorrectly named. Scarcely any 
attempts, apparently, have been made to identify the species of 
Kunth, Liebmann, and Miquel, and some of the most distinct species 
have been redescribed, in spite of the fact that the early descriptions 
were usually ample and carefully drawn. 
Chiefly as a result of a better understanding of the characters, 
obtained from the great amount of material now available for com- 
parison, the writer has found it necessary to reduce to synonymy 
many of the early names, and in some cases to unite under a single 
name two or more published by an author at one time. 
While many of our species are constant in their characters, some 
are so variable that two collections may seem to represent quite 
distinct species until intermediate specimens are examined. Some 
characters which have been used to separate species are now found 
to be unreliable. Consequently, it is not improbable that certain 
species here recognized will have to be reduced when still more 
ample collections are obtained. 
Ficus is usually subdivided into five toeight sections or subgenera. 
In the Western Hemisphere only two are represented, Pharma- 
cosyce and Urostigma, the former exclusively American. Attempts 
have been made to divide the genus into several genera, and for a 
time Urostigma and Pharmacosycea were recognized as distinct 
genera. Some authors have united the two American subgenera 
under the subgenus Urostigma, but while the differences between 
the two are not very great, in the case of the Central American 
species they happen to be easily determinable. All recent authors 
have deemed it best to preserve Ficus in its broad sense. 
In making the present revision the writer has examined, besides 
the collections in the National Herbarium, those in the Gray Her- 
barium, the herbarium of the Field Museum of Natural History, and 
the herbarium of the University of California. To the curators of 
those collections he is greatly indebted for the opportunity of study- 
ing the additional material. 
1 Biol. Centr. Amer. Bot. 3: 143-148. 
