236 NORTH AMERICAN FLORA [VoLuME 22 
the primary veins somewhat elevated on the under side, 5-7 on each side of the midvein ; 
flowers very numerous, sessile, in simple or panicled appressed-puberulent spikes often 
longer than the leaves; calyx about 2.5 mm. long, appressed-puberulent, its lobes oblong, 
obtusish; petals oblong-spatulate, about 4mm. long; follicle obliquely obovate, glabrous 
when mature, 2 cm. long, 1.3 cm. wide, nearly 1 cm. thick, the inner margin nearly 
straight, with a minute tip at the end, the stipe 5 mm. long; seed 1 cm. long. 
TYPE LOCALITY : Chagres, Panama. 
DISTRIBUTION: Panama. 
3. CNESTIDIUM Planch. Linnaea 23: 439. 1850. 
Trees or shrubs, with odd-pinnate leaves, the leaflets very short-petiolulate, and many- 
flowered, velvety-pubescent, axillary and terminal panicles, the small flowers bracteolate. 
Calyx-tube hemispheric, the limb 5-cleft, the lobes valvate in bud, spreading and little 
enlarged in fruit; petals 5, oblong, longer than the calyx, glabrous; stamens 10; filaments 
distinct, the alternate ones longer and shorter ; carpels 5, sessile; styles filiform, glabrous; 
stigmas obtuse. Follicle solitary, oblong, sessile, curved, velvety; seed oblong, shining, 
with a fleshy cupuliform aril at its base. 
Type species, Cnestidium rufescens Planch. 
Cnestidium rufescens Planch. Linnaea 23: 440. 1850. 
Rourea frutescens Griseb. Fl. Br. W. Ind. 229. 1860. Not &. frutescens Aubl. 1775. 
Rourea hondurensis Donn.-Smith, Bot. Gaz. 40: 2. 1905. 
A half-climbing shrub, 3 m. high or more, the young twigs and leaf-rachis velvety- 
pubescent. Petioles 3-7 cm. long; leaflets 5-9, ovate-oblong to oblong-obovate, subcori- 
aceous, 3-8 cm. long, 1.5-5 em. wide, glabrous above when old, velvety-pubescent beneath, 
obtusish to short-acuminate at the apex, rounded, subcordate or narrowed at the base, the 
veins elevated on the under side, 6-8 on each side of the midvein, the petiolules only about 
2mm. long; panicles axillary and terminal, as long as the leaves or shorter, the rachis 
densely velvety-pubescent ; calyx 2.5~-3 mm. long, velvety-pubescent, deeply cleft, its lobes 
oblong, obtusish ; petals oblong, slightly unequal, a little longer than the calyx; longer 
stamens about equaling the calyx; follicle oblong, strongly curved, 1.5 cm. long, about 9 
mm. thick, densely brown-tomentose; seed obliquely oval, shining, twice aslong as the aril. 
TYPE LOCALITY: Panama. . 
DISTRIBUTION: Southern Mexico to Honduras and Panama; Cuba. 
