102 CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE NATIONAL HERBARIUM. 
on the small, freely staminate receptacle, and the material is too scanty to 
permit the dissection necessary to find the ovary. The above statement of 
Dr. Huber, however, is sufficient, and I do not hesitate to maintain this species 
as a true Brosimum, generically distinct from both Brosimum aubdletii and 
Piratinera guianensis. Its relationship to the other recently described species 
of Brosimum remains to be established. 
REDESCRIPTION OF BROSIMUM UTILE. 
The description following, which is to my knowledge the first to include all 
parts, shows conclusively that the milk tree is really a Brosimum, differing from 
the general type only in the hard, woody mesocarp of its fruits. 
Brosimum utile (H. B. K.) Pittier. 
Galactodendrum utile H. B. K. Nov. Gen. & Sp. 7: 163. 1825. 
Brosimum galactodendron D, Don in Sweet, Hort. Brit. ed. 2. 462. 1830. 
A laticiferous tree, 20 to 25 meters high, the trunk 40 to 50 em. in diameter 
at the base. Bark thick, grayish, smooth or verrucose. Trunk erect, simple, the 
crown elongate; young branchlets subangular, more or less pubescent, 
Leaves large, coriaceous, petiolate; petioles 0.5 to 1.5 em. long, thick, 
narrowly canaliculate, sparsely pubescent; blades ovate, elliptic, rounded at 
the base, abruptly acuminate at the apex in a drip tip, 10 to 25 em. long, 
3.5 to 9.5 em. broad, glabrous on both sides, green above, golden brown 
beneath; margin entire; venation impressed on the upper face, prominent and 
slightly pubescent on the lower face; primary veins 27 to 30, parallel, straight, 
almost transverse, forming with the costa an angle of about 70 degrees. Stipules 
acute-lanceolate, about 2°cm. long, silky-pubescent, caducous, leaving at each 
node a circular scar, 
Receptacles globose, each with one female flower, solitary in the axils of 
the leaves, long-pedunculate, about 7 mm. in diameter in the floriferous stage, 
Bractlets orbicular, thick, pilose-pubescent, sessile. Staminal bractlets broad 
and short (0.5 mm. long), ciliate. Stamen 0.7 to 1.4 mm. long; filament 
smooth; anther ovate, 2-celled. Ovary inserted 2.5 to 3 mm. deep in the 
receptacle; emerged part of the style about 2 mm. long, woolly-pubescent, 
forking at about the middle into 2 slender stigmatic branches, 
Fruit depressed-globose, 2 to 2.5 em, in diameter, the epicarp fleshy, 4 to 6 
mm. thick, yellow at maturity, the mesocarp (putamen) woody, rugose on the 
surface, entirely filled with a single almond-like, white seed. 
Collected anew on hills about Puerto Obaldia, San Blas Coast, Panama, in 
flower and fruit, September 1 to 4, 1911, Pittier 4845, 4418. 
Notwithstanding the incompleteness of the specimens collected by Humboldt 
and Bonpland, Kunth described the new genus Galactodendrum, the species 
being G. utile, ag cited above. Later Don sSagaciously perceived the close 
kinship with Brosimum and transferred the species to it under the name B. 
galactodendron, which has been maintained ever since. 
In 1840 W. J. Hooker gave an emended description of the tree, founded on 
material about as poor as that collected by Humboldt and Bonpland, accom- 
panied by two plates, one giving the general habit, and the other the leaf, 
limb, and fruit of the tree.’ In this article the original name, Galactoden- 
drum utile, was retained, the association with Brosimum being considered 
as doubtful. 
*Curtis’s Bot. Mag. 66: pl. 3723-24. 1840. 
