ROBINSON. — MEXICAN PLANTS. 323 



of this plant known to be in existence was collected by Galeotti (no. 

 5456 $ ) and is in the herbarium at Brussels. 



D. lob ata, Uline, var. rnorelosana. Middle lobe of leaf obtuse, 

 mucronate ; larger leaves measuring 2.5 dm. long and wide ; flowers 

 with deeper tube; pedicels shorter and nearer together than in the 

 species. 



Morelos, lava beds near Cuernavaca, altitude 1,540 m., C. G. Pringle, 

 no. 7341 $. 



IV. — NEW PHANEROGAMS, CHIEFLY GAMOPETALAE, 

 FROM MEXICO AND CENTRAL AMERICA. 



By B. L. Robinson. 



Hechtia sphaeroblasta. Only $ plant known : leaves 7 dm. long, 

 4.5 cm. broad at the base, gradually attenuate to a slender pungent apex, 

 gray and scurfy on the lower (in dried state concave) surface, pale green 

 but nearly smooth upon the reverse face, armed on the margins at inter- 

 vals of about 2 cm. with very sharp incurved stramineous spines (2 mm. 

 in length): inflorescence many-branched; axes smooth and glabrous, at 

 least 7 dm. high ; bracts ovate-oblong, acute, entire, 1 cm. or more long, 

 scarious, with many fine dark veins ; branches 1 to 3 dm. long, angled, 

 ascending, glabrous, 5-9-brauched near the middle, bracts of the second 

 order, small, scarious, about 2 mm. long; branchlets 4 to 12 cm. long, 

 slender, ascending, loosely floriferous from the base to the tip, their 

 bractlets scarious, 1 mm. long ; buds broadly ovoid almost globose, •'! 

 mm. long just before expanding: flowers 14 to 30 on each branchlet, 

 borne singly or subverticillate, nearly sessile, 6 mm. broad in anthesis: 

 calyx-divisions oval, 2 mm. long; petals (in dried state yellowish white) 

 suborbicular, distinct or nearly so, 3 mm. long, obtuse : rudimentary 

 ovary in £ flowers glabrous. — Collected by E. W. Nelson at Tlapa, 

 Guerrero, Mexico, altitude 1,200 m., 3 December, 1894, no. 2044. 

 Types in herb. Gray and herb. U. S. Nat. Museum. This species pos- 

 sessing subsessile flowers, elongated flowering branchlets, and glabrous 

 ovary, evidently belongs in the group with H. rosea, Morr. (which has 

 much larger flowers), H. stenopetala, Kl. (which has a much denser 

 inflorescence and acuter petals), and H. gamopetala, Mez (which has the 

 petals united). 



Smilax domingensis, Willd., var. roicroscola. Stem rather thickly 



