standley: the species of agonandra 507 



Langlasse's specimen is remarkable for its narrow leaves; the ver- 

 nacular name is given as "palo de golpe." One of Goldman's specimens 

 (no. 313) bears fruit and staminate flowers upon the same branch, 

 but all the other specimens of the genus examined are from dioecious 

 plants, so far as the specimens show. 



Some of the specimens agree excellently with Sesse and Mocino's 

 plate,^ upon which the species was based. This is far superior to many 

 of the plates of the series, and shows plainly the scalelike glands of the 

 disk in the staminate flower. 



Agonandra racemosa is more nearly like A. hrasiliensis, the type of 

 the genus, than is either of the following species. In A. hrasiliensis 

 the staminate flowers are densely glandular-puberulent rather than 

 glabrous. 



2. Agonandra obtusifolia Standi., sp. nov. 



Shrub, I to 3 meters high, with long stout spreading branchlets, 

 these green, striate, and finely puberulent, the older branches gray; 

 petioles 2 to 4 mm. long, puberulent; leaf blades narrowly oblong to 

 oblong-ovate, 2 to 5 cm. long, 0.6 to 1.5 cm. wide, cuneate at base, 

 glabrous; staminate racemes i to 2 cm. long, glabrous, borne on old 

 wood, the flowers short-pedicellate; stamens 3 times as long as the 

 petals; fruit subglobose, yellow. 



Type in the U. S. National Herbarium, no. 572649, collected in 

 the vicinity of Victoria, Tamaulipas, Mexico, altitude 320 meters, 

 in 1907, by Edward Palmer (no. 421). 



Additional Specimens Examined: 



Tamaulipas: Vicinity of Tampico, 19 10, Palmer 507. Buena 

 Vista Hacienda, June 16, 191 9, Wooton. 



Veracruz: Vicinity of Pueblo Viejo (near Tampico), 1910, Palmer 

 423- 



Palmer gives the vernacular name as "granadillo," and Wooton 

 as "revienta cabra." Palmer reports that the shrub grows in hedge- 

 rows or in rich wooded bottom lands; the leaves are light or dark green. 

 The abundant fruit, he states, appears as if covered with honey dew; 

 it has a sweet, watery flavor, but is not eaten by the natives. 



Agonandra obtusifolia is easily distinguished from ^4. racemosa by 

 the characters given in the key. The leaves average much smaller 

 and narrower than in the latter species, and the petioles are relatively 

 much shorter. The coarse, stiff branches indicate a different habit of 

 growth. 



2 A. DC. Calq. Dess. Fl. Mex. pi. 169, pi. V, B. 



