174 PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY 



4. A Cursory Examinatioyi of a Collection of Dried Plants 

 made by L. C. Ervendberg around Wartenberg", near 

 Tantoyuca, in the Ancient Province Huasteca, Mexico, 

 in 1858 and 1859. By Asa Gray. 



This collection, being made by a person of limited botanical knowl- 

 edge, contains a number of plants which are common weeds in most 

 warm regions, but also a fair number of new or little known species, — 

 enough to show that this district of country, in which Mr. Ervendberg 

 resides, would well reward a proper botanical exploration, which it 

 is the object of this notice to encourage him to undertake. This Mr. 

 Ervendberg is fully disposed to do, if the possessors of herbaria could 

 be sufficiently interested in this regard, by subscribing for his collections 

 at the usual rates, to defray the necessary expenses. Supplied with 

 proper appliances and facilities, Mr. Ervendberg would make a good, 

 as he is a zealous, collector. The numbers (in parentheses) are those 

 affixed by the collector and under which the specimens have been 

 distributed. 



The enumeration, beginning with the Polypetalce, follows something 

 like the Candollean order. 



Clematis sericea, H. B. K., a glabrate form (214) ; Argemone Mexi- 

 cana, L. (292) ; Bocconia frutescens, L. (202) ; Cardamine hirsuta, 

 L. (188) ; Gleome polygama, L. (149) ; and a single specimen of some 

 other species (136) ; male specimens only of what seems likely to be 

 a new species of Mayna (273) ; Prockia Grucis, L., and fine and 

 abundant specimens of the following : — 



Banara Mexicana (sp. nov.) : foliis glabris oblongis seu ellipticls 

 breviter obtuse acuminatis a basi biglandulosa 5-costatis; panicula 

 laxa, ramis elongatis pedicellisque velutino-puberulis ; perianthio ca- 

 nescente. — "A tree in woods ; flowers April to May, white," rather 

 large ; the sepals, or outer divisions of the softly canescent perianth, 

 from 2^ to 3 lines long, strictly valvate in aestivation. Mr. Bentham, 

 who has just revised this genus, informs me that he has another Mexi- 

 can species, B. dioica, from near Vera Cruz, but that belongs to an- 

 other group (121, 247). 



Casearia hirsuta, Sev. ? (328) and C. nitida, Jacq. (338). loni- 

 dium longifolium, Moq. & Sesse, but with much shorter peduncles than 

 that species is described (210). 



Pulygala paniculata, L. (187) ; and a Securidaca, without fruit, ap- 



