APRIL 4, 1921 pittier: notes on swartzia 157 



Also recorded by Seemann from San Juan de Chagres and Hacienda de 

 Juan Lanas. Seemann describes the racemes as being in pairs, a character 

 not shown by the recent specimens, though these agree in the main with Ben- 

 tham's short diagnosis. These collections from the shady forests of the lit- 

 toral plain around Port Obaldia have broader and less coriaceous leaflets than 

 those from the high banks of the Trinidad River or the rocky slopes of the 

 Chagres gorges. In the first locality, too, the tree assumes more frequently 

 an erect, regular shape, with a straight trunk. It seems that only the basal 

 flowers of each spike bear a pistil ; this part was missing altogether on several 

 of the specimens I had occasion to dissect, and, so far as my experience goes, 

 the pods invariably grow out of the 5 flowers nearest to the base of the raceme. 

 Usually there is only one pod to each raceme, but two on the same peduncle 

 are not uncommon. Completely developed seeds are seldom found. The 

 trees on the Chagres River bore only new, incompletely developed leaves, 

 although anthesis was rather advanced and even fully grown pods were pres- 

 ent. These facts would indicate a deciduous species, the only one reported 

 so far in this heterogeneous and not well defined genus. 



2. Swartzia simplex Spreng. Syst. Veg. 2: 567. 1825. 



Small tree, 3 to 10 meters high, the trunk 10 to 15 cm. in diameter, straight 

 or distorted, with smooth grayish bark, the branching sparse and divaricate. 



Leaves unifoliolate, quite glabrous, more or less coriaceous, nitidulous, the 

 primary veins numerous and subparallel ; stipules setaceous, 5 to 8 mm. long, 

 caducous; petiole 3 to 15 mm. long, terete and auriculate at the apex when 

 ver>^ short, marginate and distinctly articulate at the apex when longest; 

 blades ovate-oblong, rounded or subcuneate at the base, shortly obtuse- 

 acuminate at the apex, 4 to 20 cm. long, 2 to 7 cm. broad, the venation prom- 

 inent on both sides. 



Inflorescences racemose, 2- to 6-flowered, axillary or terminal, 4 to 10 cm. 

 long, the rachis glabrous; pedicels erect, 5 to 20 mm. long, obclavate; buds 

 globose, 7 to 10 mm. in diameter; calyx opening by 4 irregular lobes; petal 

 orbicular, about 4 cm. in diameter, pale yellow; long stamens 8 to 12, the 

 anthers elongate-oblong; short stamens numerous, the anthers also smaller; 

 ovary long-stipitate, quite glabrous, arcuate, 10- to 12-ovulate, the style 

 arcuate and subulate. 



Legume oblique-oblong, terete, up to 4 cm. long, 1.5 cm. in diameter, 

 usually 1- or 2-seeded, in the latter case hardly contracted between the seeds. 

 Type Locality: Trinidad. 

 Specimens Examined: 



Panama: Chagres, Fendler 327. Agua Clara, Canal Zone, along Rio 

 Trinidad, fruit, June 20, 1911, Pittier 3984. Culebra, Canal Zone, flowers, 

 January 6, 1911, Pittier 2256. Penonome and vicinity, fruit, March, 1908, 

 Williams 396. Marraganti, South Darien, fruit, April 5, 1908, Williams 995. 



3. Swartzia arborescens (Aubl.) Pittier. 



Possira arborescens Aubl. PI. Guian. 2: 934. pi. 255- 1775^. 



Tree, 6 to 10 meters high, the branchlets glabrous or pubescent. 



Leaves glabrous, 3-foliolate or sometimes 1-foliolate; stipules setaceous; 



2 For full synonymy see Fl. Bras. IS^: 22. 1870. 



