PITTIER—PLANTS FROM COLOMBIA AND CENTRAL AMERICA, 115 
Inflorescences axillary and terminal, paniculate, the rachis minutely grayish- 
pubescent. Flowers sessile, the other details not known. 
Legume about 4.5 cm. long, long-stipitate, the stipe pubescent, 6 to 7 mm. 
long, the seminal part about 1 cm. long, 0.8 em. broad, glabrous, arcuate, the ° 
wing membranous, cultrate, obtuse, mucronulate, loosely prominulous-reticu- 
late, 1.1 cm. broad. 
Type in the herbarium of the New York Botanical Garden, collected in 
dry forest near Bonda, Santa Marta, Colombia, almost at sea level, in fruit, 
November 1, 1898, by H. H. Smith (no. 702). 
Labeled as Machaerium acuminatum H. DB. K., but hardly to be confused 
with that species and apparently not closely related to any known species of 
the section Reticulata, to which it seems to belong. 
Machaerium floribundum Benth. Journ. Linn. Soc. Bot. 4: Suppl. 68. 1860. 
A scandent shrub, climbing on high trees, the branchiets subangular, at 
first ferruginous-pubescent, later glabrous, the bark more or less rimose. 
Leaves 3 to 9-foliolate, glabrous or almost so, the rachis 8 to 20 em. long. 
Leaflets coriaceous, the petiolules thick, at first ferruginous-pubescent, 4 to 6 
mm. long, the blades ovate or oblong, rounded at the base, abruptly short- 
acuminate, 3.5 to 13 cm. long, dark green and dull above, paler beneath, the 
costa and veins impressed on the upper face, very prominent beneath. Stip- 
ules lanceolate, acute, subindurate, 6 to 8 mm. long, often caducous. 
Inflorescences terminal, paniculate, up to 40 em. long, the rachis more or 
less ferruginous-pubescent, the branchlets often geminate, simple or ramified, 
the peduncles 1 to 6 cm. long, few to many-flowered. Bracts triangular-acute, 
about 5 mm. long, ferruginous-pubescent, usually caducous; bractlets orbicular, 
hairy, subpersistent. Flowers 6.5 to 7 mm. long, sessile or very shortly pedicel- 
late. Calycinal bracts orbicular, fuliginous-pubescent, very small. Calyx cam- 
panulate, 3 to 4 mm. long, fuliginous-pubescent without, the teeth indistinct 
and irregular. Petals dull white; standard minutely pubescent without, the 
claw 1.5 to 2 mm. long, the blade oblong, attenuate at the base, bilobulate at 
the apex, 5 to 5.5 mm. long, about 4 mm. broad; wings glabrous, strongly in- 
equilateral, unequal in size, the claw slender, 2 to 2.5 mm. long, the blade 
ovate, Shortened on the vexillar side at the base, 5 mm. long, 2.5 to 3.56 mm. 
broad; carinal petals glabrous, faleate, auriculate, the claw as in the wings, 
the blade about 4 mm. long, 2 to 2.5 mm. broad. Stamens monadelphous, 
glabrous, the anthers ovoid or oblong. Ovary 1-ovulate, long-stipitate, densely 
fuliginous-pubescent, provided at the base with a very short tubular disk; 
style glabrous, oblique, about 1.1 mm. long. 
Type from northern Brazil, in the Kew Herbarium. The above description 
from specimens collected in Santa Marta, Colombia, in flower, March, 1900, 
by H. H. Smith (no. 2039). 
The Santa Marta specimens agree with Bentham’s description, except in the 
size of the flowers (6 to 7 mm. long instead of 9.5 mm.) and in having the 
standard minutely fuliginous-pubescent, not glabrous, without. In the ab- 
sence of the legume a nearer determination is hardly possible. In the Brazil 
and Guiana specimens the legume is 7.5 to 10 cm. long, glabrous, the seminal 
part incurved, 1.9 to 2.5 cm. long, the wing 2.6 to 3.6 cm. broad, the stipe 1.5 
to 2 em. long. 
A specimen of the type collection of Jfachaerium floribundum var. parvi- 
florum Benth. from Tarapoto, Peru, in the Gray Herbarium, is remarkable for 
its large, lanceolate, indurate-spinescent, recurved bracts, which seem to be 
persistent, 
