APRIL, 1904. PLANTS YUCATAN^ MILLSPAUGH & CHASE. 107 



Melampodium divaricatum (Rich.) DC. Prod., 5:520. 



Dysodium divaricatum Rich. 



An erect, dichotomously branching annual, with angled stem and 

 branches, pubescent in lines, and opposite, short ciliate-petioled, 

 lanceolate or ovate, acute, sinu- 

 ate-dentate, hirsute leaves. In- 

 florescence of solitary, long-pe- 

 duncled heads, terminating the 

 dichotomous branches, one head 

 terminal in the fork; peduncles 

 slender, puberulent. Heads 8-9 

 mm. high, 17 mm. broad, ray 

 flowers 10-15, disk flowers nu- 

 merous. Outer involucral bracts 

 5, imbricated, orbicular, sub- 

 acute, connate at the base, cili- 

 ate; inner bracts at first, con- 

 duplicate, truncate, dentate, 

 becoming a hard, triangular- 

 cuneate, corky-ridged, pericarp- 

 like covering for the achene, 

 which is with difficulty separated 



from it (shown magnified 5 diameters in the figure). Corollas yellow, 

 ligule oblong-oval, bidentate, 6-7 mm. long, spreading; disk flowers 5 

 lobed. Receptacle conoid, elevated, the fructiferous bracts saccate 

 around it, below their point of attachment; "scales fimbriate. Achene 

 dull black, 1.8-2x3.2 mm., unsymmetrically cuneate-obovoid; in sec- 

 tion triangular, the dorsal facet shortest; striate with impressed lines, 

 glabrous. 



Hab. Merida, Nov. 14, 1864, Schott 28 (Melampodium paludosum 

 H. B. K. Field Col. Mus. Bot. 1:395); Cozumel 1885, 1886 Gaumer 

 (Oliver) (Eleutheranthera divaricata Ibid. 1:53); patio, residence of Dr. 

 Gaumer, Izamal, Jan. 13, 1895, Millspaugh Armour Exped. 71 (Eleu- 

 theranthera divaricata Ibid. 1:53); Merida Valdez j (Eleutheranthera 

 divaricata Ibid. 1:324); "herb, 4 feet high, abundant in old fields near 

 Izamal, Sept. to Jan.," Gaumer 563 (Eleutheranthera divaricata Ibid.}, 

 961 (Melampodium paludosum H. B. K. Ibid, i :395), Chichankanab 1486, 

 2100, 2345, San Anselmo 2101, Progreso 2346, 2347, 2348. 



Called by the Mayas XOY, "stye," probably from an ancient use 

 of the plant as a refrigerant application to painful boils upon the eye- 

 lids. Cuevas, in his "Ensayo Botanico," says: "XKANTUMBUB, 

 abundant throughout the peninsula, where the whole plant is used as a 

 remedy for dysentery." This error is a common one, as many Maya- 

 Yucatec informants do not differentiate between this plant and Sanvi- 

 talia procumbent, the true xkantumbub. 



Melampodium gracile Less. Linnsea 6:407. 



An erect, trichotomously branching herb, with subangled, hispid 

 stem and branches, and opposite, partly clasping, oblong, acuminate, 

 sinuate dentate, hispid leaves, the lower somewhat hastate-pan- 



