Addisonia 73 



(Plate 157) 

 FAGELIA DIVERSIFOLIA 



Cut-leaved Slipperwort 



Native oj Colombia 

 Family ScrophuIvARIAC^a:^ Ftgwort Family 



Fagelia diver sifolia Pennell, sp. nov. 



A Sparsely pubescent erect herbaceous plant, with deeply and 

 variously cut leaves and lax corymbs of slipper-form yellow flowers. 

 The roots are fibrous, but with a short tap-root. The stem is from 

 one to three feet tall, branched above through the inflorescence, and 

 is sparsely pubescent, especially about the nodes, with gland- 

 tipped hairs. The leaves are pinnately lobed with two or three 

 pairs of segments, irregularly doubly serrate-dentate, are green 

 above and pale beneath, and with a scattered pubescence on both 

 surfaces; they are very variable in the form of the segments and 

 the depth of the cutting, this in the upper leaves reaching nearly 

 to the midrib, in the lower being only a pronounced dentation. The 

 inflorescence is ample and leafy-bracted throughout, appearing as if 

 dichotomously branched with axillary pedicels; inspection shows 

 that this inflorescence, which is characteristic of this genus, consists 

 of a pair of terminal flowers at each joint, the branch or branches 

 developing from buds axillary to the bract-leaves. The pedicels 

 are about an inch long, and pubescent with gland-tipped hairs. 

 The four sepals are ovate, acuminate, slightly serrate, and exter- 

 nally slightly pubescent and ciliate with gland-tipped hairs. The 

 corolla, as throughout this genus, is remarkably modified; the 

 posterior lip, composed of the two posterior lobes, remains as a 

 very short arch, with a narrow slit-like orifice; the anterior lip or 

 pouch, about half an inch long, is developed into a large inflated 

 pendent pouch, nearly closed at its narrow orifice by an upgrowth 

 of its anterior wall ; above this orifice is a narrow neck at the widest 

 part of which the corolla is abruptly hinged, the pouch projecting 

 forward so that the concavity on its outer surface just below its 

 orifice nearly closes against the posterior lip; the corolla is yellow 

 throughout, and is slightly pubescent posteriorly both without and 

 within. The stamens are but two, and lack the filament, the separ- 

 ated anther-sacs being borne on two arms of the connective; one 

 sac, of a deep yellow, bears pollen, and is hid within the hood ; the 

 other sac, of a pale yellow, is sterile, and projects in such a manner 

 that an insect, pushing into the orifice of the pouch, will hit it. 

 This action, through the lever-like connective, forces the posterior 

 sac out through the slit-like posterior orifice and dusts the insects 

 back with pollen. The style matures after the anthers and is 

 curved downward so that the stigma may be touched by the insect 



