RUBIACE/E OF CENTRAL AMERICA. 47 
is situated between long. 10° and 13? N. I ascended the river San 
Juan, whieh entirely divides the eastern primitive forests, where the 
country is wholly unpeopled, or haunted only by wild tribes of aboriginal 
Indians, and where you cannot move a step in those forests which are 
soaked with moisture all the year round, without meeting with some 
remarkable and unknown vegetable form. I then went through the 
province of Segovia, and through a suecession of terrace-like high- 
lands, reached mountain regions where the Fir tribe already predomi- 
nate at an elevation of 4 to 5000 feet, and I was surprised at finding 
myself among a mixture of northern and tropical plants. I have 
further examined the entire western slope between the Nicaragua sea 
and Realejo, and the province of Guanacaste, where the Catinga vege- 
tation makes its appearance in its most characteristic form. It is, 
however, my lengthened sojourn in the interior mountains of Costa- 
Rica and my ascent to the numerous volcanos, some of which (Irasu and 
Turialva) rise to 11,000 feet, which have produced the principal por- 
tion of the plants which are the subject of the following pages. To 
the distinguished English botanist, G. Bentham, Esq., who has kindly 
undertaken the Leguminose, Labiate, Scrophularinee, Acanthacea, and 
Composite, which I brought back from my voyage, I am further in- 
. debted for the determination and description of the following species, 
with the exception of.a few, marked as such, respecting which personal 
observations on the living plants, or a more abundant supply of spe- 
cimens, enabled me to institute a more full examination, and better 
to determine them; which applies particularly to the genera Ravuia, 
Xerococcus and Ophryococcus. 
[Here follows the notice, with remarks and descriptions of the new 
species, of all the Rubiacee detected by Dr. Oersted, and belonging to — 
the genera Galium, Rubia, Borreria, Spermacoce, Diodia; Mitracarpium, — 
Richardsonia, Cephaelis, Gypsophila, Psychotria, Nonatelia, Palicourea, 
Coffea, Ixora, Chiococca, Guettarda, Sabicea, Hamelia, Alibertia, Gon- 
zalea, Oldenlandia, Rondeletia, Pentagonia, Lindenia, Portlandia, Ma- 
crocnemum, Condaminea, Calycophyllum, Bouvardia, Manettia, Exostem- 
ma, Lasionema, Buena, Ravnia (gen. nov.), Higginsia; Coccocypselum, 
Xerococcus (gen. nov.), Ophryocoecus (gen. nov.); Randia, Genipa, Po- 
soqueria, Stannia ; in all nine species. Professor Oersted then con- 
tinues:—] ; : eas 
T'have now given a view of the Rubiaceae, amounting to about 100 As 
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