536 CONTRIBUTIONS. FROM THE NATIONAL HERBARIUM, 
rounded apex, the two inner similar but smaller; female flower solitary, the 
corolla white, tubular, 2.8 mim. long. 5-toothed (two of the teeth united for 
half their length), bearing a few long hairs at tip; style equaling corolla ; herma- 
phrodite flowers 8, white, tubular-funnelform, 1.6 mm. long, 5-toothed, the tube 
and throat marked with 5 black lines, the teeth 0.7 mm. long, hispid; achene 
oval, 3.2 mm. long, 2.6 mm. wide, pilose above, lenticular in cross section, 
olivaceous; sterile ovaries densely intricate-pilose, linear, becoming 4 mm. long. 
Type in the U. S. National Herbarium, no. 1,056,632, collected in savannas 
near Valencia, Carabobo, Venezuela, August 15, 1920, by H. Pittier (no. 9060). 
This species is of interest as the first member of the genus to be found in 
Venezuela, the others ranging from the Guianas to Brazil. It may easily be 
distinguished from the previously known species by its ovate leaves, 
EXPLANATION OF PLATE 44.—Riencourtia ovata, from the type specimen, Natural size. 
Espeletia marcescens Blake, sp. nov. 
Caudex stout, up to 5 meters high, 2 em. thick above, densely accumbent- 
pilose, very leafy above, denudate below; leaves densely crowded, oblong- 
oblanceolate or oblong-obovate, 26 to 35 em. long, 5 to 6 em. wide, obtuse or acute, 
gradually narrowed to an abruptly ampliate sheathing base, minutely dentic- 
ulate throughout (teeth 5 to 7 mm. apart), pergamentaceous, not revolute- 
margined, above deep green, rather densely rufid-hispidulous, glabrescent ex- 
cept along costa, beneath dull brownish green, gland-dotted and rather sparsely 
hispidulous, closely feather-veined (chief veins 80 pairs or more) and very 
censely prominulous-reticulate beneath, the veins and veinlets obscure or 
impressed above; flowering stems 45 cm. high and more, branched, striate, 
sordidly short-hispid-pilose with glandular-tuberculate-based hairs, more 
densely so in the inflorescence, leafy ; stem leaves alternate or the upper rarely 
opposite, Oval to elliptic-oblong, 5 to 13.5 em. long (including the short or 
obsolete, margined petiole), 2.5 to 4.5 cm. wide, apiculate, cuneate-rounded at 
base, denticulate. or the upper entire, pubescent like the basal leaves, the “upper- 
most smaller, about 2.5 em. long; heads numerous (11 to 17 per stem), cymose- 
panicled, nodding, “ white,” 2.8 em. wide in flower, 3.5 to 4 em. wide at 
maturity; peduncles 2.5 to 11.5 cm. long, monocephalous; disk 1.5 to (fruit) 
2.8 cm. wide, about 1 em. high; involucre 2-seriate, obgraduate, 1.2 to 2 em. 
high, the outer phyllaries about 6, broadly ovate, acutish, foliaceous, veiny, 
densely glandular-tuberculate and sparsely hirsute, the inner shorter; rays 
about 54, about 3-seriate, marcescent, the lamina wedge-obovate, 6-nerved, 
12 mm. long, 3.8 mm. wide: disk corollas sparsely hispidulous on tube and 
densely so on teeth below apex with short hairs with light base and dark tip, 
6 mm. long (tube 2 to 2.5 mm., throat campanulate-funnelform, 2.5 mm. long, 
teeth ovate, 1.5 mm.) ; pales oblong, 6 mm, long, obtuse, glandular-ciliolate, 
toward apex setose with acuminate dark hairs with light bases; achenes (of 
ray) trigonous-obovoid, 2.5 mm. long, 1.8 mm. wide, blackish brown with 
whitish base, glabrous, somewhat shining. 
Type in the U. 8. National Herbarium. no, 1,069,158, collected on the southern 
slope of the Pairamo de Quirora, Mérida, Venezuela, altitude 2,950 meters, 
February 24, 1922, by Alfredo Jahn (no. 875). 
Related to Espeletia lindenii Schultz Bip., but distinguished by the lack of 
tomentum on the stem and the under leaf surface. In Standley’s revision of 
the genus Hspeletia mention was made® of the fact that E. lindenii was the 
only Venezuelan species of the genus not represented in Jahn’s collections, — In 
material received recently from Dr. Jahn it is represented by four numbers 
*Amer. Journ. Bot, 2: 488. 1915. 
