l66 ROWLEE: SYNOPSIS OF THE) GENUS OCHROMA 



as the Llanuras de Santa Clara, Costa Rica, at a general elevation of 

 about 250 meters. The only specimens we have seen in herbaria are 

 Captain J. D. Smith's no. 6,453, from La Emilia, Costa Rica, collected 

 in April, 1896, and C. F. Baker's no. 2,149, from Chinandega, Ni- 

 caragua. 



This species is very abundant in northern Costa Rica from the 

 Reventazon River north to Lake Nicaragua. It grows on higher land 

 than the Limon balsa, and while the two species grow in contiguous 

 districts they do not overlap to any great extent. It extends up the 

 Turrialba Volcano to a height of a thousand meters or more, and im- 

 doubtedly occurs on tlie whole northerly slope of the central cordillera 

 of Costa Rica. 



When in leaf only, and especially with young trees, this species 

 closely resembles the Limon balsa, but the flowers are markedly different. 

 The pubescence, general outline, and texture of the leaves, as well as 

 the period of flowering, clearly distinguish the two species. 



cS. Ochroma boliviana, n. sp. Bolivian balsa. 



A tree 8 to 10 meters high, the trunk 20 to 25 cm. in diameter; leaves 

 obsoletely 3-lobed (the margin undulate but not denticulate), nearly 

 orbicular, 30 cm. in diameter, glabrous and dark green above, tawny 

 white and densely velvety beneath; calyx tube 5.5 cm. long, granular- 

 puberulent outside and densely white-tomentose within; calyx lobes 

 herbaceous-membranous, elliptic, acute, 4 cm. long, 2 cm. wide, the 

 inner ones not sharply differentiated into margin and keel, stellate- 

 pubescent without, densely white-tomentose within; petals conspicu- 

 ously parallel-veined and expanded above, protruding 5 cm. beyond the 

 calyx lobes, 5 cm. broad above. 



Evidently very showy in flower, suggesting the northern tulip tree. 

 Flowers borne in July and August; fruit in August and September. 



Known only from the following specimens, in the herbarium of the 

 New York Botanical Garden, all from the northeastern part of Bolivia 

 in the vicinity of Mapiri: Mapiri, July-August, 1892, Bang 1501 (type); 

 junction of the rivers Beni and Madre de Dios, August, 18S6, Rushy 

 1927; Mapiri, September 23, 1901, Williams 714; "San Carlos region de 

 Mapiri, 15° lat. sur," September, 1907, Buchtien. Vernacular names 

 "tami" and "palo de balsa." 



9. Ochroma obtusa, n. sp. Santa Marta balsa. 



A tree 10 to 15 meters high; twigs glabrate; leaves 20 by 20 cm., 

 conspicuously 3-lobed, the sides of the lobes straight, giving the ap- 

 pearance of a maple leaf, glabrous or nearly so above, scantily covered 

 with slender branched hairs beneath; flower, 14 cm. long; calyx tube 

 5 cm. long, spreading above, at first granular-puberulent, becoming 

 glabrate; calyx lobes nearly uniform in outline, not carinate, nearly as 

 broad as long, 3 cm. long, densely tomentose on back, ciliate; petals 



