PITTIER—PLANTS FROM COLOMBIA AND CENTRAL AMERICA. 105 
Information is lacking as to the economic value of the wood of the several 
species of Brosimum. That of Piratinera guianensis is known as “ letterwood,” 
“bois de lettre de Chine,” “bois de lettre moucheté,” and “bois d’amourette 
moucheté,” names which, however, may apply also to several other species of 
Piratinera and Brosimum. Of the wood of the tree described by him, Aublet says 
that it is hard and compact, the sapwood white, and the heart red with black 
speckles. It is a valuable commercial asset, but a critical study of the several 
varieties, in connection with that of the corresponding botanical specimens, has 
yet to be made, 
Piratinera panamensis goes among the inhabitants of Puerto Obaldfa under 
the name of “ guafmaro.” Its wood is also white, fine-grained, and hard. 
MAGNOLIACEAE. 
A NEW SPECIES OF TALAUMA FROM PANAMA. 
Talauma sambuensis Pittier, sp. nov. 
A large tree, 30 to 40 meters high, the trunk straight, the crown elongate. 
Branchlets terete, rather thick, glabrous, marked with the annular scars of the 
stipules and the large, orbicular, white scars of the fallen leaves. 
Leaves coriaceous, glabrous, crowded at the ends of the branchlets; petioles 
1.5 to 4 cm. long, slightly thicker at the base, flattened above; blades ovate- 
elliptic, acute-cuneate at the base, subacute or sometimes shortly obtuse- 
acuminate at the apex, 11 to 25 cm. long, 4.5 to 11 em. broad, minutely reticulate, 
concolorous, more or less lustrous on both faces; costa impressed above, very 
prominent beneath; primary veins alternate, prominulous on both faces, about 
12 on each side of the costa, arcuate-anastomosed but first running straight 
to within a short distance (5 to 7 mm.) of the margin, each of them joining 
there with the anterior one, then turning almost abruptly to form a flat bow 
parallel to the margin; margin broadly sinuate. Stipules lanceolate, finely 
granular-reticulate, glabrous, caducous, about 2 cm. long. 
Flowers not known. 
Synearp pedunculate, subglobose, about 8 cm. long and 7.5 cm. in diameter, 
woody, squamose-areolate, the carpel tips free, lanceolate, obtuse at the apex. 
Seeds not known. 
Type in the U. S. National Herbarium, no. 715960, collected at Boca de 
Pauarandé on the Sambi River, southern Darién, Panama, fruit, February, 1912, 
by H. Pittier (no, 5681). 
The fewness and incompleteness of the specimens in American herbaria of 
the several recognized species of Talauma, as well as the brevity of their de- 
scriptions, make it very difficult to estimate the relative value of the dominant 
characters and to discriminate between forms which may represent simply 
variations of one specific type. The above tree is evidently a near relative of 
Talauma ovata St. Hil, from Brazil, but seems to differ in the size and shape 
of the leaves, and in the smooth petioles and the number of primary veins. In 
T. plumiert DC., the “bois-pin” of Martinique, in JT. minor Urban, from 
Jamaica, and in J. gloriensis Pittier, from Costa Rica, the netting of the 
veinlets is coarser, the leaf scars are distinct in size and shape, ete, Other 
differences appear when we compare our specimens with the other American 
species of the genus, for which reason it is considered preferable for the present 
to describe the Panama species as a distinct type, 
