128 CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE NATIONAL HERBARIUM, 
My frequent visits to the Gamboa Sapium tree allowed me to observe again 
the presence, already noticed in Costa Rica on 8S. thelocarpum, of large drops 
of water hanging in the early morning, even when there was no trace of dew, 
along the margins of the leaves. These leaves have evidently an unusual secre- 
tional power, which I have been led to locate in the larger, rounded teeth which 
appear at irregular intervals on their margin in several, if not all, species of the 
genus, and which seem to be real hydathodes, with an apical pore, the opening 
of the aquiferous duct, often so large as to be distinguished by the naked eye. 
' The extreme length of the floral spikes is one of the striking characters of 
S. caudatum. The basal flowers are often abortive, totally or in part, and the 
end of the rachis is long and slender, showing only imperfect clusters of male 
flowers. In the living specimens as well as in the dried ones, I have been 
unable to find any trace of a perianth on the female flowers. In the male 
flowers it was noticed that the stamens develop one at a time and that anthesis 
starts either at the base or in the middle of the cluster. 
This species has its affinities with the group of 8. oligoneurum, characterized 
by sessile capsules, coriaceous leaves, and long, slender spikes. It differs from 
the other species of the group by its lanceolate leaves, its very long spikes, the 
absence of perianth in the female flowers, and the larger number of male 
flowers in each cluster. 
Sapium giganteum Pittier, sp. nov. 
A large tree, about 30 meters high, the trunk 1 meter in diameter at base. 
Trunk straight, 8 meters high, the limbs divaricate, twisted, forming a rather 
flat, spreading crown. Bark grayish and rimose. 
Leaves coriaceous, glabrous; petioles 1.4 to 2 em. long, terete, shallow-sulcate, 
the glands rounded-conical, contiguous to the base of the blade and hardly 
diverging; blades 5 to 12 em. long, 2.5 to 8.5 em. broad, elliptic, rounded-cuneate 
at the base, narrowing at the apex to a slender, incurved appendage; costa 
prominent beneath, the primary veins 4 to 7 mm. apart, salient on both faces, 
straight at the base and then abruptly arcuate; margin sinuate-dentate or, close 
to the apex, serrate. Stipules not known. 
Inflorescence not known. 
Fructiferous spikes bearing 4 to 8 capsules, these sessile, depressed-globose, 
about 10 mm. long by 15 mm. in diameter, the divisions of the carpels and their 
dorsal sutures equally well marked by longitudinal furrows. Seeds surrounded 
by a red pseudo-aril, whitish, suborbicular and depressed, paucituberculate, 
apiculate, about 5 mm. long by 5.8 mm. broad. 
Type in the U. S. National Herbarium, no, 679239, collected near Faté, Proy- 
ince of Colén, Panama, at sea level, in fruit, August 10, 1911, by H. Pittier 
(no. 4141). 
Closely allied to 8. caudatum, with which it could be identified but for the 
large size of the tree, its smaller, thicker leaves, with different margins, the 
primary veins more inflexed, the apical appendages longer and more slender, 
and the different size and shape of the capsules and seeds. 
Sapium giganteum is one of the largest and most conspicuous trees in the 
forests around Fat6, or Nombre de Dios, on the San Blas Coast of Panama. 
Sapium aucuparium moritzianum (Klotzsch) Pittier. 
Sapium moritzianum Klotzsch in Seem. Bot. Voy. Herald 100. 1853. 
A tree, 5 to 10 meters high, with a more or less rounded-depressed crown 
and spreading branches. Floriferous branchlets erect. Bark rugose, gray. 
Leaves coriaceous and stiff, olive-green above, darker beneath; petioles 5 
to 15 mm. long, rounded on the back, flattened and broadly shallow-suleate 
above; petiolar glands conical, erect (ie, not divergent) and wide apart; 
