THE MIDDLE AMERICAN SPECIES OF LONCHOCARPUS 
By Henry PIrrier. 
INTRODUCTION. 
SCOPE AND MEANS OF THE INVESTIGATION. 
The genus Lonchocarpus is one of the best-represented groups of 
the Fabaceae, subfamily Dalbergieae, in the forests and on the half- 
denuded hills and plains of the lower altitude belt of Central America 
and southern Mexico. The species, however, are not generally con- 
spicuous as an ecologic element, and their significance from the eco- 
nomic standpoint is very limited, facts which probably account for 
the slight attention paid to the genus in recent years. Notwith- 
standing the evident wealth of forms, only six Middle American 
species have been described since the last revision by Bentham in 
1860. 
In the present paper I have described all the Central American and 
Mexican species of Lonchocarpus, old and new, found in the Gray, 
New York Botanical Garden, John Donnell Smith, Field Museum 
of Natural History, and United States National herbaria, all of which 
have very obligingly been put at my disposal. In consequence of 
the large increase in the number of species, it has been found neces- 
sary to discard the systematic arrangement established by Bentham 
and make an attempt at a new classification. 
In an additional chapter a West Indian and a South American 
species, intimately related to and often confused with the Middle 
American Punctati, have been described and discussed, as well as 
several other species recently collected in Colombia and Venezuela. 
HISTORY AND LIMITATION OF THE GENUS. 
ORIGIN AND TYPE. 
The genus Lonchocarpus was established by Kunth and published 
in 1823 in the Nova Genera et Species of Humboldt, Bonpland, and 
Kunth. The name, formed from doyxn, lance, and xaprés, 
fruit, refers to the peculiar shape of the legume, often resembling a 
lance head. 
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