i8 



BLAKE: REVISION OF THE AVOCADOS 



from Valle de Rancho Redondo, near Yolcan Irazu, altitude 1500 

 meters, Costa Rica) has not been available for examination, it is clear 

 from Mez's full description that his plant is only P. schiedeana. His 

 error is undoubtedh' due to the fact that he had previously treated 

 P. schiedeana as only a variety of P. gratissima, and consequently did 

 not consider it in this connection. 



4. Persea cinerascens Blake, sp. nov. 



Tree; branchlets of the year densely pilose -tomentose with sordid- 

 rufescent hairs; older branchlets fuscous, more sparingly pilose-tomen- 

 tose; leaves alternate, crowded on the young branchlets, the blades 10 

 to 20 cm. long, 5 to 8 cm. wide, elliptic to oval-oblong or obovate, acute 



Fig. 2. — Persea «nerc5cew5 Blake (drawn from Purpus 7671). a, perianth, 

 X 5; &, stamen of series I, X 10; c, stamen of series III, viewed from dorsal 

 side, X 10; ^, staminode, viewed from ventral side, X io;_g, ovary, X 10. 



or short-pointed but blunt at apex, cuneate at base, chartaceous, 

 entire, above dull green, rather obscurely foveolate, with impressed 

 veins, sordidly pilose-tomentose chiefly on costa and lateral veins, 

 beneath cinerascent, sordidly pilosulous on whole surface but more 

 densely so on the veins with crisped spreading hairs, prominent-reticu- 

 late, the 14 to 16 pairs of lateral veins diverging at an angle of 45° to 

 '60°, the secondaries connecting them nearly at right angles; petioles 

 pilose-tomentose with sordid-rufescent hairs, 2 to 3 cm. long; peduncles 

 axillary, 3.5 to 7 cm. long, like the whole inflorescence sordidly pilose- 

 tomentose; panicles 5 to 7 cm. long, 3 to 4 cm. wide, narrowly subpyr- 

 amidate, the short branches 3- to 6-flowered toward apex; bractlets 

 deciduous; pedicels stout, i mm. long; perianth 7 to 8.5 mm. long, 

 densely pilosulous-tomentose both sides with sordid-cinereous hairs, 

 the tube about i mm. long, the segments elliptic-oblong, 1.8 to 2 mm. 



