HARVARD 
UNIVERSITY 
LIBRARY 
BOTANICAL LEAFLETS 
HARVARD UNIVERSITY _~ 
CampripGr, Massacuusetts, NovemMsBer 8, 1940 Vo. 8, No. 10 
PLANTAE MEXICANAE VI 
BY 
RicHarpd Evans ScCHULTES 
NEW AND SIGNIFICANT SPECIES OF SAURAUIA 
FROM NORTHEASTERN OAXACA 
Durine the course of botanical and ethnobotanical 
investigations in northeastern Oaxaca, Mexico, the writer 
had an opportunity to study in the field and to collect 
specimens of several species of the perplexing dillenia- 
ceous genus, Saurauia. In the present paper, three spe- 
cies are discussed from the point of view of their botanical 
and ethnobotanical interest; one of them represents a 
new species which is herein described. 
Saurauia aspera Twurczaninov in Bull. Soc. Nat. 
Moscou 81 (1858) 242. 
Mexico: Oaxaca, District of Choapam, partially cleared field near 
the town of San Juan Lalana, long. 95°45’, lat. 17°25’, altitude 600 
m., May 13, 1939, Schultes 490 (Tororypr) Herb. Gray. 
Although it is very scantily represented in herbaria, 
Saurauia aspera is the commonest and most abundant 
species of the genus in the northeastern districts of Oa- 
xaca at altitudes between 500 and 1500 meters. Because 
of its economic value to the natives, it is spared when 
forests are cut down to provide new mi/pas; as a conse- 
quence, it often appears in gardens and around towns in 
abundance. 
[ 189 | 
