120 Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington. 



Oaxaca: Valley of Oaxaca, altitude 1525 to 1615 meters, September 

 20, 1894, Nelson 1293. 



Rnsselia obtusata seems to be most nearly allied to R. cuneata Robinson, 

 but that species has a 4-angled glabrous and furfuraceous stem, striate 

 fruiting sepals, and other differences. 



Russelia tetraptera Blake, sp. nov. 



Frutescent; stem elongate, 4 mm. thick, oppositely branched, gray- 

 green, puberulous and sometimes hispidulous, glabrescent, sharply quad- 

 rangular, flat or concave between the angles, the angles with corky- 

 margined wings 1 mm. wide or less, reduced above to mere corky margins; 

 leaves opposite; petioles puberulous, 3 to 7 mm. long; blades ovate, those 

 of the main leaves 2.5 to 6.5 cm. long, 2 to 5 cm. wide, obtuse or acutish, 

 truncate-rounded or slightly cordate at base, thin, crenate-serrate or 

 dentate with rounded or acute teeth, above deep green, sparsely incurved- 

 hispidulous or glabrescent, beneath scarcely paler, sparsely incurved-his- 

 pidulous along the 3 or 4 pairs of prominulous veins, and dotted with 

 saucer-shaped glands ; cymes axillary, many flowered, spreading-hispidulous 

 with slightly curved hairs, 1.8 to 7 cm. wide, the lower leafy-bracted, the 

 uppermost with reduced bracts, the lower internodes 5 to 7 cm. long; 

 peduncles 2 to 5 mm. long; pedicels 1.5 to (fruit) 5 mm. long; calyx 3 

 to 3.5 mm. long, the five sepals ovate, green, pale-margined, 1 to 5-ribbed, 

 sparsely hispidulous along costa, narrowed into a usually shorter fili- 

 form-subulate tip; corolla scarlet, 11 mm. long, glabrous outside, pubescent 

 inside with 1 -celled hairs at base of stamens and along the ventral side, 

 the upper lip emarginate, the lower longer, 3-lobed, the lobes essentially 

 equal, oblong-ovate, rounded, 2 mm. long; staminode present, 0.6 mm. 

 long; capsule subglobose, olive-green, glabrous, 3.5 mm. in diameter, 

 tipped with the persistent style, this 6 mm. long. 



Type in the U. S. National Herbarium, no. 305142, collected at Tepic, 

 Territory of Tepic, Mexico, January 5 to February 6, 1892, by Edward 

 Palmer. 



Other Specimens Examined: 



Tepic: Moist ravine, vicinity of Acaponeta, April 10, 1910, Rose, 

 Standley & Russell 14313. 



This species may be distinguished readily by its puberulous narrowly 

 4-winged stem and by the dimensions of its flowers. 



