PITTIER—-PLANTS FROM COLOMBIA AND CENTRAL AMERICA. 127 
EUPHORBIACEAE. 
OLD AND NEW SPECIES OF SAPIUM. 
Sapium caudatum Pittier, sp. nov. 
A medium-sized deciduous tree, about 15 meters high, the trunk 35 cm. in 
diameter at base. Ramification radio-fasciculate. Bark gray, with longitudinal 
fissures, New growth, leaves, and inflorescences entirely glabrous. Young 
foliiferous and floriferous shoots green, subangulate. 
Leaves 8 to a cycle, erect ; petioles 2 to 4.5 cm. long, rounded below, obscurely 
suleate above; glands close to the lamina, short, conical, almost contiguous ; 
blades 9 to 16 cm. long, 2.3 to 4 cm. broad, lanceolate, more or less rounded at 
the base, narrowing at the upper end into a long, slender, incurved tip; margin 
distinctly serrate, subrevolute, bearing many hydathodal teeth; venation form- 
ing a pale yellow net on the upper face of the leaf; costa prominent beneath ; 
primary veins 8 to 10 mm. apart, arcuate. Stipules very small, obtuse, scaly. 
Spikes often over 30 cm. long, solitary, tapering to an extended, slender, 
sterile cauda. Floral glands paired, not contiguous, ovate, purple. Female 
flowers 8 to 14; involucral bracts 3, broadly triangular or narrow, scarious, 
with smooth margin; perianth not apparent; ovary sessile, globose, obscurely 
suleate; stigma sessile, its 3 reflexed branches early caducous. Male flowers in 
clusters of 5 to 14; bract triangular, much broader than long, more or less ob- 
tuse at tip, and with a scarious margin; bracteoles thin, irregular, or often 
undeveloped; perianth globose-campanulate, pink, about 1.7 mm. long, bilobu- 
late, one of the lobules denticulate, covering the end of the other one between 
the stamens; stamens connate at the base and then diverging; filaments 2 to 
2.5 mm. long, green, rather thick; anthers 2-celled, globose, purple. 
Capsules 3 to 6 on each spike, small, depressed-globose, sessile, smooth, the 
divisions of the carpels well marked and their dorsal sutures obsolete. Seeds 
small (about 5 mm. long and broad), flattened, orbicular and almost heart- 
shaped, slightly tuberculate, the median line marked by a very thin raphe, 
Type in the U. S. National Herbarium, nos. 678781 (flowers), 679149 (fruit), 
and 676760 (autumnal leaves), collected on a hill near Gamboa, Canal Zone, 
Panama, from a single tree, in flower, June 25, 1911, in fruit, July 23, 1911, by 
H. Pittier (nos. 3713, 4058, and 2603). 
This species, which belongs to the group Cucullata of the section Americana 
Pax & Hoffm., was described from living specimens, the details being checked 
up later on material preserved in alcohol and on herbarium specimens, At my 
first acquaintance with the tree it was fast losing its leaves, previous to spring 
pudding. In the specimen then collected (no. 2603, February 1, 1911), the 
leaves are coriaceous, olive-green above, whitish and scaly beneath; the petioles 
are very long and the blades large. Every tooth of the leaves which accompany 
the flowers ends in an easily caducous, conical, nectariferous gland, which does 
not seem to be the object of any special attention on the part of ants or other 
insects. 
The examination of many sections of the cucullate appendage at the tip of 
the leaf showed a thickening of the epidermis on the upper side, but failed to 
indicate the presence of any glandular tissue; so that the term “ apical gland,” 
often used in the description of species of this genus, may after all be a 
misnomer. These appendages may serve other purposes than the feeding or 
sheltering of insects, and are met with in other plants distant generically, as 
for instance, in the banana (Musa sapientum), in which they appear in the 
young leaves but disappear as soon as the blade begins to unroll. 
