safford: a new species of annonaceae 459 



BOTANY. — Papualthia Mariannae, a new species of Annonaceae 

 from the island of Guam. William Edwin Safford, Bureau 

 of Plant Industry. 



Among the unidentified trees growing on the island of Guam 

 mentioned by Don Felipe de la Corte 1 was one called by the 

 natives paipay, the wood of which is used in the construction of 

 small buildings and for handles of garden tools. I saw no speci- 

 men of this tree during my residence on the island; but I after- 

 wards obtained herbarium specimens, including leaves and flowers, 

 from Mr. H. L. W. Costenoble, and very recently I received 

 specimens of its fruit from the venerable Monsignor Jose Palomo, 

 for many years priest of Agana, to whom I am indebted for 

 many favors. The tree in question proved to belong to the An- 

 nonaceae and to the recently described genus Papualthia, which 

 is characterized by leaves somewhat asymmetrical at the base and 

 by shortly peduncled or subsessile, 6-petaled flowers, with the 

 petals in two series, valvate and connivent, the inner petals 

 slightly smaller than the outer or nearly equal to them in size; 

 stamens indefinite; carpels indefinite to 3; ovules many to 2; and 

 carpidia subglobose. 2 



This genus shows an affinity in its vegetative characters and 

 flowers to certain species which King has placed in the genus 

 Popowia, and also to several Malaysian species of Polyalthia, 

 especially to the 2-ovuled group to which P. subcordata BL, P. 

 macrorhyncha Miq., and P. celebica Miq. belong. All of these 

 have a tendency to asymmetrical leaves. Their petals are 

 polyalthoid, but show a tendency toward shortening and to the 

 connivence of the inner series, forming a transition from the true 

 Polyalthias to the present genus, as pointed out by Diels. 



Papualthia Mariannae Safford. sp. nov. 



An irregularly branching tree, its very young ultimate branch- 

 lets clothed with ferrugineous silky solitary hairs, soon becoming 

 glabrate, the older ones grayish, slender, bearing numerous minute 



1 Felipe de la Corte, Memoria descriptiva e historica de las Islas Marianas. 

 Madrid, 1875. 



2 See Papualthia Diels n. gen. Engler's Botan. Jahrb. 49: 138. 1912. 



