Vischer (in Bull. Soc. Bot. Genéve, ser. 2, 11 (1919) 
199) followed Baillon in uniting Matisia and Myrodia 
under Quararibea, including Matisia as a subgenus of 
Quararibea. 
He offered an apparently far more fundamental sub- 
generic classification of Quararibea’ than that proposed 
by Schumann. It was based on the structure of the ovary 
and the appearance of the staminal column. 
Subgenus I : Archiquararibea Vischer— Ovary 2-locular ; staminal 
column obsoletely 5-dentate or shortly 5-fid. 
Subgenus II: Levxarza (Llave) Vischer emend. —Ovary 4-locular ; 
staminal column apically dilated, 5-dentate. 
Subgenus III: Matisia (Humboldt & Bonpland) Vischer— Ovary 
5-locular; staminal column profoundly 5-fid. 
In 1948, Cuatrecasas (in Lloydia 11 (1948) 185) con- 
sidered Matisia as a synonym of Quararibea. Six years 
later, however, he (in Rev. Acad. Col. Ciene. 9 (1954) 
175) outlined the results of more intensive study of these 
groups and concluded that Matisia and Quararibea should 
be maintained as distinct concepts. 
Garcia- Barriga (in Mutisia 2 (1952) 1) indicated that 
he accepted Quararibea and Matisia as the same and 
made several nomenclatural transfers from Matisia to 
Quararibea. 
For reasons which I consider in detail below, I believe 
that Matisia should be retained as a distinct generic con- 
cept, even though not all of the plants which are or have 
been referred to Matisia may belong to it. Since I am 
excluding Matisia, I have not included a bibliographic 
history of it in this paper. 
‘Two of the three Mexican species of Quararibea (Q. verticillaris 
(DC.) Vischer and Q. Fieldii Millspaugh), fall into the subgenus Archi- 
quararibea, and one (Q. funebris (Llave) Vischer), falls into the sub- 
genus Lexarsa. Indeed, the latter subgenus consists only of this one 
species. 
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