THE GERMINATION OF PACHIRA, WITH A NOTE 

 ON THE NAMES OF TWO SPECIES.* 



J. Arthur Harris. 



Systematically, the species of the genus Pachira Aubl. , often 

 passing under the generic name Carolinea Linn., have pre- 

 sented great difficulty. Bentham and Hooker, in the Genera 

 Plantarum^ place the genus in the tribe or sub-order Bom- 

 baceae with Adansonia, Bombax, etc., while Engler and 

 Prantl, in Die Naiurliclien Pjianzenfamilien, include Pachira 

 Aubl., Carolinea Linn., Eriotheca and Salmalia Schott and 

 Endl. , in the genus Bombax of the Bombaceae. In considering 

 the species of the genus the difficulty is quite great, owing to 

 the inadequate condition of herbarium material, and consider- 

 able confusion has reigned. 



In the Missouri Botanical Garden are growing some speci- 

 mens of Pachira, which Dr. Trelease f has described and 

 figured, giving a key for six more commonly cultivated 

 species, but assigning no name to the Garden specimens on 

 account of the impossibility of affirming or denying identity 

 with Carolinea affinis as described in volume one of Martius' 

 Flora Brasiliensis or Don in the first volume in his History 

 of Dichlamydeous Plants. In 1898, Terracciano % published 

 an extensive paper on extra-floral nectaries in the Bombaceae, 

 and in a footnote under P. campestris refers the specimens 

 described and figured by Dr. Trelease to this species. 



Early in February, 1903, my attention was attracted by 

 eight remarkable seedlings in the propagating house and I 



* Presented to The Academy of Science of St. Louis, November 2, 1903. 



t Trelease, Wm. Notes and Observations. I. Pachira sp. Ann. Rep. Mo. 

 Bot. Gard. 5:154-157. pi. 27. 1894. 



X Terracciano, A. I nettarii estranuziali nelle " Bombacee." R. Istituto 

 Botanico di Palermo. Contribuzioni alia Biologia vegetale. 2: 138-191. pis. 

 15-18. 1898. 



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