Bot. Neerland. 6 (1957) 851-377) has set these two 
generic concepts apart in a distinet family: the Henri- 
queziaceae. Steyermark’s recent study (in Mem. N.Y. 
Bot. Gard. 10 (1964) 199), however, retains the genus 
in the Rubiaceae. 
Of Spruce’s original species from the upper Rio Negro 
— Casiquiare area, Henriquezia verticillata (the type of 
the genus) and HZ. nitida were known in flower; AH. 
obovata and H. oblonga (which Bentham suspected as 
representing possibly but a variety of HZ. nitida) were 
known only from fruiting material; and the type collec- 
tion of H. obovata consisted of but a single specimen. 
In 1952, ninety-eight years after the Spruce collection, 
I encountered Henriquezia obovata in flower in early 
November along the Rio Guainia, the headwaters of the 
Rio Negro. The tree, about 50 feet in height, prefers 
the river bank, especially near outcroppings of rock or 
above cataracts. ‘The bark is unique in being greenish 
and very rough. The Kuripako Indians who inhabit the 
Rio Guainia know the tree as o0-zwd-pa and utilize the 
ashes of the bark and leaves for mixing with clay for 
making pots. The Kuripakos of the Colombian village 
of Sejal on the upper Guainia report that the water in 
which the bark has been boiled for an hour is an efhica- 
ceous wash in the treatment of a prevalent skin disease 
known as ‘‘pinto’’ or ‘‘earate’’; the bark is intensely 
bitter. 
The collection Schultes, Baker et Cabrera 18222, on 
which the following description of the inflorescence and 
flower is based, was made probably not far from the type 
locality which was ‘‘in woods along the Guainia or upper 
Rio Negro, above the confluence of the Casiquiare.”’ 
Panicula terminalis, intra folia summa subsessilis, thyr- 
soidea, 15-20 cm. longa, usque ad 13 cm. in diametro, 
ramis crassis, subcompressis, sulcatis, verticillatis atque 
dichotome cymiferis, dense sed minutissime albido- 
tomentellis. Calyx incurvus, subcrassus, 25-80 mm. 
longus, extus dense sed minutissime tomentellus pilis 
[ 318 | 
