MR. SPRUCE ON FlYE NEW PLANTS FROM EASTERN PERU. 199 



rimas (spatio 2 lin. sejunctas) a septorum marginibus angulo 45° pro- 

 cedentes, sursum directas, sed ad septorum latitudinis vix tertiam 

 partem attingentes, funiculo brevissimo inserta, sc. 4 ad utramque 

 lineam, in laminas 24 septo parallelas colligata, superiora et lateralia 

 inferioribus et interioribus incumbentia, ala tenuissima 2x1 unc. 

 cincta*; nucleo 3^x3 lin. obeordato piano. Testee tenuis firmius- 

 culse membrana exterior in rugas creberrimas irregulariter transversales 

 elevata, interior ab exteriori embryoneque demum separabilis. Em- 

 bryo planus, exalbuminosus ; cotyledones oblatse, profunde emarginatae, 

 basi cordate ; radicula brevis, subulata, hilo proxima. 



I first saw the tree above described in January 1851, at Ja- 

 nauari, in the angle between the Eio Negro and Amazon, where it 

 had been raised from seeds brought from Peru ; but it had no 

 flowers or fruit; and I did not again see it until I arrived at 

 Tarapoto in June 1855, when I at once recognized it growing in 

 the gardens, and here and there in tlie open grounds near the 

 town. I have not yet seen it truly wild, nor can I learn whence 

 it was originally brought. It is planted in all the villages I have 

 seen in the Maynensian Andes, and is especially noticeable in the 

 pretty English-looking village of Morales, where it forms scattered 

 clumps on the verdant plain, accompanied by oranges and limes ; 

 by the Ciruelo (Spondias, sp.) ; the Siamha palm (an undescribed 

 (Enoca/rpus with clustered stems) ; picturesque old Huingos 

 (Crescentia Cujete), whose branches are hidden by a dense coating 

 of mosses, ferns, and orchids ; and several species of terrestrial 

 figs, whose tortuous trunks are enveloped in a network of their 

 own roots. It is a small tree, scarcely larger than Samhucus 

 nigra, which it much resembles in its thick cracked bark, though 

 its regularly forked and somewhat rigid branches give it other- 

 wise a different aspect. When out of flower, it might be passed 

 over for a Tecoma, to which it is undoubtedly closely allied ; but 

 the green flowers, the large lax plicate calyx, and the broad pods 

 traversed by twelve deep furrows are marks that at once distin- 

 guish it from that genus. The inhabitants of Maynas dye the 

 cotton cloths of their own manufacture a permanent blue by 

 simply boiling them along with Yangua leaves. About every 

 three months every leaf that can be got at is stripped off"; and the 

 trees seem not to suffer from being thus denuded ; but they rarely 

 put forth flowers till they grow beyond the reach of spoliating 

 hands. 



* Ala seminum inferiorum margine plui'isinuata ; funiculis seminum supe- 

 riorura, quibus ala rectangularis margine subintegra adest, per sinus alarum 

 inferiorum egredicntibus. 



