388 Brittox: Studies of West Indian plants 



corymbs 2 or 3, distant, filiform-stalked, compound, narrow, 2-7 

 cm. long; spikelets clustered, fusiform, 5 mm. long, narrowed at 

 both ends, bearing only i achene; scales lanceolate or oblong- 

 lanceolate, dark brown, acute; bristles about 6, upwardly barbed, 

 longer than the achene and tubercle; style-branches about one- 

 third as long as the undivided part; achene oblong-obovate, faintly 

 transversely wrinkled, 1.5 mm. long, a little longer than the 

 smooth, conic, acute tubercle. 



Open wet places in the forest, Rio Icaco and adjacent hills. 

 Sierra de Naguabo, Porto Rico, 465-720 m. alt. {Shafer 3515, type) ; 

 Sierra Nipe, Oriente, Cuba {Shafer 3453, 3638). 



Apparently nearest R. glaiica Vahl, which has shorter, ovoid 

 spikelets, and a shorter tubercle. 



Cassia clarendonensis sp. nov. 



A finely pubescent shrub about 1.3 m. high. Leaves linear in 

 outline, 10-15 cm. long, bearing an obtusely conic gland i mm. high 

 between the lowest pair of leaflets, the slender, pubescent rachis 

 angular; leaflets 10-15 pairs, thin, pubescent on both sides, with 

 very short pubescent petiolules, apiculate, inequilateral, the upper 

 2 or 3 pairs oblong, 1.5-2 cm. long, 6-7 mm. wide, the others 

 elliptic to obovate-elliptic, shorter and slightly broader; flowers 

 in several short pubescent panicles in the upper axils; pedicels 

 2-4 mm. long; sepals obliquely elliptic, obtuse, pubescent, 5-6 

 mm. long; petals yellowy obovate, veiny, about 9 mm. long, rather 

 abruptly short-clawed; sepals 7; larger anthers curved, 7-8 mm. 

 long, the smaller nearly straight, about 5 mm. long; style curved, 

 about II mm. long; pods short-stalked in the calyx, linear, many- 

 seeded, densely puberulent, 7-10 cm. long, 6 mm. wide, flat, 

 impressed between the seeds, the margins scarcely thickened; 

 seeds oblong, transverse, pubescent, about 4 mm. long. 



Inverness, Clarendon, Jamaica {Harris 116Q3). 



Purdiaea velutina Britton & Wilson, sp. nov. 



A shrub 3 m. tall, or a small tree ; twigs \'illous. Leaves obovate, 

 4-10 cm. long, 2-3.3 cm. broad, rounded and emarginate or 

 mucronate at the apex, gradually tapering to a rather broad 

 sessile base, 5-7-ribbed, reticulate-veined, glabrous; bracts oblong- 

 obovate or obovate, 15-24 mm. long, 6-9 mm. broad, velutinous on 

 the back, glabrous within above the middle, below clothed with 

 rather short, appressed silky hairs; peduncles and pedicels villous; 

 one ciliate, the three outer ones unequal,^ ovfite, 9-12 cm. long, 



