~ 
BLAKE—AMERICAN SPECIES OF HOMALIUM. 227 
obtusish, 2.8 to 3.5 mm. long, 1.3 mm. wide; corolla in fruit 12 mm. wide; petals 6 or 
7, ovate, obtusish, tomentose-puberulous and somewhat villous, 4 to 4.3 mm. long, 
2 to 2.5 mm. wide; glands oval, tomentulose; stamens 4 to 7 in a fascicle, their fila- 
ments pilose to middle or higher; styles 3, distinct to base, hairy below; ovary conic 
from a broad base, densely spreading-villous. 
Type in the U. 8. National Herbarium, no. 399,375, collected at Coquillo, Guerrero, 
Mexico, May 3, 1903, by E. W. Nelson (no. 7034). 
Easily distinguished from any other Mexican species by the softly pilosulous under 
leaf surface. 
6. Homalium pleiandrum Blake, sp. nov. 
Older branches grayish, the younger fuscous, glabrous; leaf blades 4.5 to 9 cm. 
long, 3.2 to 4.7 em. wide, oval or ovate-oval, normally short-pointed and acute or 
acuminate at tip, rarely rounded or obtuse, rounded at base, coarsely répand-crenate 
with blunt teeth, subcoriaceous, above glabrous and shining, beneath barbellate in 
the axils of the veins, otherwise glabrous, reticulate-venulose, with 6 to 8 pairs of 
lateral veins; petioles glabrous, 4 to 5 mm. long; racemes axillary and subterminal, 
simple, loosely or somewhat densely flowered, on glabrous peduncles 1.5 to 2.5 em. 
long, the rachis griseous-puberulous, 2.5 to 4.5 cm. long; pedicels 1 to 2 mm. long; 
calyx tube in flower slenderly turbinate, gradually narrowed into a pediform base, 
densely griseous-puberulous; calyx segments 6 or 7, elliptic-ovate or ovate, sparsely 
sordid-puherulous outside, densely so within, 3.2 to 3.8 mm. long, 1.5 to 2 mm. wide; 
corolla 8.5 to 12 mm. wide; petals 6 or 7, densely sordid-tomentellous on both sides, 
ovate or triangular-ovate, acutish, 4.5 to 4.8 mm. long, 2.5 to 2.8 mm. wide; stamens 
in fascicles of 4 to 8, the filaments glabrous, about equaling the petals; styles 2 to 4, 
united into a short column, glabrous or sparsely hairy at base; ovary depressed-conic, 
densely sordid-villous. 
Type in the U. S. National Herbarium, no. 426,086, collected in pastures near 
Rio Piedras. Porto Rico, March 30, 1899, by Mr. and Mrs. A. A. Heller (no, 957). 
OTHER SPECIMENS EXAMINED: 
Porro Rico: Rio Piedras, 1912, Cowgill 281, 326 (Y). Red clay slopes, Maya- 
guez, April, 1913, Britton & Hess 2818 (N). Monte Alegrillo, June 20, 1913, 
Stevens 2341 (Y). Rio Icaco and vicinity, Sierra de Naguabo, 1914, Shafer 
3492 (Y). Woods near Ceiba, Naguabo, April 25, 1885, Sintenis 1161 (G, N). 
In woods, Fajardo, April 16, 1885, Sintenis 957 (N). Forests, Sierra de 
Luquillo, May. 1883, Eggers 1238 (N). Mt. Jiminez, Sierra de Luquillo, 
July, 1885, Sintenis 1874 (N). Without definite locality, July 17, 1915, 
Stevens 8400 (Y). Duplicates of the type, Heller 957 (Y). 
Homalium pleiandrum and the two following species, H. leiogynum and H. hemi- 
systylum, all of which are confined to Porto Rico, and with the exception of #7. race- 
mosum. barbellatum are the only species known from that island, are certainly very 
closely allied and may require union when more material has been accumulated, 
although as now represented in herbaria they seem distinct. Asa group they differ 
from H. racemosum and its subspecies barbellatum in having their styles united into 
ashort column at base. /T. leiogynum, at present known only from a single collection, 
is unique, at least among the American species of the genus, in its ovary, which is 
absolutely glabrous or sometimes bears about half a dozen long hairs. It is not impos- 
sible, however, that it represents merely an extreme variation of H. pleiandrum. 
H. pleiandrum and IT. hemisystylum, which agree in the possession of a densely villous 
ovary, differ from one another in number of stamens and in the shape of the calyx 
segments. 
Urban! records HH. racemosum irom Porto Rico and gives its vernacular names as 
“ eoracolillo,’”’ “cerezo,” and “tostado.’’? The specitnens cited, however, belong to 
H, pleiandrum, H. leiogynum, and HT, hemisystylum. 
1 Symb. Antill. 4: 417. 1910. 
