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AMBRIDGE, MaAssacHuseTTs, ApRIL 4, 1941 VoL. 9, No. 8 
THE GENUS PONERA 
BY 
Donovan S. CorRELL 
In 1831, John Lindley proposed the genus Ponera 
based on P. juncifolia, a Mexican plant. Later, in 1842, 
he described a second species of the genus, P. striata, and 
stated that this concept evidently belonged to the “‘... 
rare and little known genus Ponera,...’’ The genus is 
still comparatively “‘little known,’’ although the wide- 
spread P. striata is fairly common. 
In 1888, Knowles and Westcott proposed the genus 
Nemaconia based on N. graminifolia. This species is ap- 
parently the same as Ponera juncifolia. Lindley recog- 
nized the genus Nemaconia as congeneric with Ponera 
and in 1839 he combined them. However, he retained the 
specific epithet, graminifolia, proposed by Knowles and 
Westcott. 
In the present paper six species are recognized as com- 
ponents of the genus Ponera: P. glomerata, P. juncifolia, 
P.longipetala, P.macroglossa, P.striata and P.subquad- 
rilabia. Ponera striata is widespread and rather common. 
It occurs from Mexico to Costa Rica, and also in Vene- 
zuela and Brazil. The other five species are apparently 
restricted to Mexico or Guatemala, or occur in both coun- 
tries. All of the species seem to grow at high elevations, 
usually above one thousand meters altitude. One of the 
six species, P. macroglossa, is of doubtful status. Three 
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