PITTIER—PLANTS FROM COLOMBIA AND CENTRAL AMERICA. 467 
upper pairs, all acute or subacuminate at the apex, light green above, paler 
beneath; costa prominent and primary veins prominulous on both faces, the 
latter doubly anastomosing along the margin ; leaflets of the first pair often 
cordate-acuminate and deciduous, opposite and inserted at the base of the 
pulvinus. 
Inflorescences axillary on old branchlets, solitary, sessile, forming large 
white ovoid heads 10 cm. in diameter and more, 15 to 18 cm. long; rachis stout, 
attenuate, 7 to 9 em. long, glabrous; bracts numerous, ovate, broadly clasping, 
brownish-pubescent, the exterior ones up to 8.5 em. long; pedicels 5 to 7 mm. 
long, sparsely appressed-hairy ; sheath about 4 cm. long, tubular and widened 
from base to tip, densely brown-pubescent without and within, indistinctly and 
sparsely costate; receptacle tube long-stipitate, the stipe about 3 cm. long, 
deeply sulcate, the tube 1.5 cm. long, glabrescent without; sepals 4; petals 
narrowly oblong-spatulate, 5 to 6 cm. long, glabrous without, sparsely long- 
hairy within on the blade; pistil about 6 cm. long, the ovary stipitate (stipe 
about 1 cm. long), densely light brown hairy, the style glabrous, slender. 
Legumes 20 to 25 cm. long, 3.5 to 4.5 em. long, 2 or 3 to each flower head, 
the peduncles 4 to 4.5 cm. long, glabrous, the stipe tetragonous, 1 to 2 cm, long, 
the whole body compressed, rufous-pubescent, the dorsal margin thin, the 
ventral one dilated, 5 to 6 mm. broad, pisuleate, the apex curved, acute, 
beaklike; seeds uniform, depressed, suborbicular, 27 to 3 cm. in diameter, 
about 8 mm. thick, finely rugose on the faces, bordered around the margin by 
the omphalodic band. 
Type from near Caracas, Venezuela; the above description from specimens 
collected in the forests of Mararé, near Ocumare del Tuy, State of Miranda, 
Venezuela, with flowers and fruits, May 1, 1918, by H. Pittier (no. 7804). 
This beautiful species, known only from Venezuela, does not seem to have 
been reported again since its discovery by Jacquin’s collector (Bredemeyer ?). 
It does not appear to exist any longer in the vicinity of Caracas, probably 
because the forests have largely disappeared, but I found it very abundant 
and characteristic in the forests and gorges above Ocumare, in the mountains 
between the northern part of the country and the |lanos. 
FABACEAE. 
THE MIDDLE AMERICAN SPECIES OF MACHAERIUM. 
KEY TO SPECIES. 
Leaflets few (15 or less), medium-sized to large (mostly above 5 cm. long), 
acuminate, the veins remote, with the interspaces densely reticulate. 
RETICULATA. 
Leaves 11 to 15-foliolate; leaflets thick, ovate, acutely acuminate. Inflores- 
cence sparsely flowered ; flowers large; legume 9 to 10 cm. long, ferrugi- 
nous-tomentose at the base. Panama _------------ 1. M. pachyphyllum, 
Leaves 3 to 11-foliolate ; leaflets submembranous, elliptic or oblong, or ovate 
and then very large and few, obtusely acuminate. 
Legume 10 to 11.5 cm. long; leaves 3 or 5-foliolate; leaflets ovate, long- 
acuminate, 6 to 14.5 cm. long, 3 to 8 cm. broad. Central America and 
Mexico___-------------------------- 9-9 rrr 2. M. latifolium. 
Legume not over 6 cm. long; leaves 7 to 11-foliolate; leaflets shortly 
broad-acuminate, not over 8 cm. long. 
Petiolules 4 to 5 mm. long; filaments glabrous; legume rather long- 
stipitate (the stipe 7 mm. long), ferruginous-pubescent at the base; 
leaflets 7.5 to 8 cm. long, 2 to 3.5 cm. broad. Panama. 
3. M. darienense. 
