EUPATOHUMS OF ECTADOU. 345 



sections, Praxcliti and CaiiipuhH-Humiii, irprcscnled in Colombia, 

 are as yet unrecorded in Ecuador. Of Sect. Conodinium, with 6 

 chiefly endemic species in Colomhia, there are hut 2 species in Ecuador. 

 On the other hand, Sect. HclHcliuiuni, with hut 4 species in Colombia, 

 has no less than 6 species in the much smaller area as yet botanically 

 explored in Ecuador. By far the greater part of the Ecuadorian 

 Eupatoriums fall into Sect. Sublmbncafa and Sect. Eximhricata. 

 These sections are about equally represented and in Ecuador as else- 

 where they are quite confluent, their separation, although convenient 

 and almost necessary for purposes of classification, being manifestly 

 artificial. 



The absence from Ecuador of certain species known to occur both 

 in Colombia and Peru may well be due to imperfect exploration. In 

 this connection it is to be remembered that botanical iuA-estigation of 

 the country has as yet been restricted to limited and relatively accessi- 

 ble areas, but that the country as a whole presents such remarkable 

 diversity in altitude, temperature, precipitation, exposure, and soil- 

 conditions that when more fully explored, especially when the large 

 and little known Prov. Oriente has been investigated, it can scarcely 

 fail to yield an exceedingly rich flora greatly extending the representa- 

 tion of this as well as other large genera. 



Of species pretty certain to be found in Ecuador E. amycjdalinum 

 Lam., E. pauciflprum HBK., and E. macrophyllum L. may be men- 

 tioned with a fair degree of confidence. 



For a key to the sections of the genus, see p. 269. 



Sect. I. Cylindrocephala DC. (see p. 270). 



Key to Species. 



a. Leaves ovate or lanceolate, long-acuminate or gradually nar- 

 rowed to the apex b. 



b. Petiole one sixteenth to one eighth the length of the leaf- 

 blade; heads 7-8(-10)-fiowered, very slender, acute or 

 acutish in bud 1. E. leptocephalum. 



b. Petiole at least one-fifth as long as the blade; heads 10-3.5- 



flowered, obtuse or obtusish in bud 2. E. odoratum. 



a. Leaves oval or elliptical, merely acutish to short-acuminate c. 



c. Heads in flattish or moderately convex corj-mbs; involucral 



scales viscid, scarcely or not at all ciliate 3. E. laevigatum. 



c. Heads subsessile in panicled glomerules; involucral scales 



conspicuously ciliate, not noticeabl}' viscid 4. E. Eggersii. 



