Family 16. CONNARACEAE 
By NATHANIEL LORD BRITTON 
Trees, shrubs, or woody vines, with alternate estipulate odd-pinnate leaves, 
the leaflets entire-margined. Flowers small, usually perfect, nearly or quite 
regular, racemose or paniculate. Calyx 5-lobed or 5-parted, mostly persistent 
at the base of the fruit. Petals 5, usually distinct, mostly imbricated. Stamens 
perigynous or hypogynous, 10 or fewer; filaments filiform; anthers small, 
didymous. Disk none or very narrow. Ovary of 5 distinct hirsute carpels; 
styles slender or filiform; stigmas capitellate; ovules 2, orthotropous. Fruit 
a leathery or woody, 1-seeded, rarely 2-seeded follicle, ventrally dehiscent. 
Seed erect, usually arillate; cotyledons foliaceous ; endosperm fleshy or none. 
Calyx-segments imbricate. 
Calyx enlarged after flowering; capsule sessile. 1. RourEA. 
Calyx not enlarged after flowering; capsule stipitate. 2. CONNARUS. 
Calyx little enlarged after flowering, its segments valvate ; capsule sessile, 
tomentose. 3. CNESTIDIUM. 
1. ROUREA Aubl. Pl. Guian. 1: 467. 1775. 
Woody vines, shrubs, or small trees, with evergreen odd-pinnate leaves, the leaves 
rarely unifoliolate, the twigs often terminating in a stout hook or coil. Flowers small and 
numerous in axillary or terminal panicles. Calyx deeply 5-lobed, enlarged and persistent 
in fruit, the lobes imbricate. Petals 5, more or less longer than the calyx; stamens 10, 
the 5 alternate ones the longer; filaments filiform, cohering at the base; anthers didy- 
mous; carpels 5, usually 1 only maturing, the others imperfect. Follicle curved, sessile, 
l-seeded. Seed erect, mostly longer than the aril, shining; endosperm none. 
Type species, Rourea frutescens Aubl. 
Leaflets coriaceous or subcoriaceous, 9 cm. long, or less; vines. 
Leaflets shining above; inflorescence glabrous. 1. R. glabra. 
Leaflets dull on both sides ; inflorescence sparingly appressed-pubescent, 
at least when young. . R. paucifoliata. 
Leaflets chartaceous, 1-2.3 cm. long ; small tree. 3 R. suerrensis. 
1. Rourea glabra H.B.K. Nov. Gen. 7: 41. 1824. 
Robergia glabra Spreng. Syst. 4: Cur. Post. 188. 1827. 
Rourea oblongifolia H. & A. Bot. Beech. Voy. 283. 1836. 
Connarus ? glabra DC. Prodr. 2: 85. 1825. 
A vine, with glabrous terete branches. Leaves long-petioled, glabrous; leaflets 3 or 
5, oblong to ovate-elliptic, coriaceous, 3-12 cm. long, shining above, dull beneath, acuminate 
at the apex, rounded at the base, the stout petiolules 2-5 mm. long; panicles usually nu- 
merous, 6-9 cm. long, much shorter than the leaves; bracts very small, ovate to lanceo- 
late, sometimes slightly villous; pedicels filiform, 2-8 mm. long; calyx about 3 mm. long, 
its lobes ovate to oval, acutish or obtuse, ciliolate; petals white, obovate, about one half 
longer than the calyx; stamens a little shorter than the petals, the anthers cordate; carpels 
villous; styles a little shorter than the stamens; follicle obliquely oblong, slightly curved, 
1-1.7 cm. long, 4-6 mm. in diameter, 2-4 times as long as the fruiting calyx; seed dark- 
brown, the aril one third to one fourth its length. 
Tyrer LocaLity: Banks of the Orinoco River near Caycara. 
DISTRIBUTION: Cuba; Santo Domingo; Porto Rico; St. Lucia; Grenada; Tamaulipas and 
Tepic to Panama; also in Colombia and Venezuela. 
VoLUME 22, Par 3, 1908] 233 
