456 PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY. 



in the West Indies, and two or three extend to South America. There 

 are also two species known exchisively from South America. Early in 

 the nineteenth century a species of" Melampodium (31. diffusmn) was 

 discovered on the island of Luzon in the Philippines. As the genus is 

 otherwise American, the occurrence of this species in a region so remote 

 has always been problematic, and it has been a matter of no small inter- 

 est to find the Philippine plant closely matched by specimens recently 

 collected by Dr. Edward Palmer, about Acapulco, Mexico. There can 

 therefore be scarcely a doubt that the genus is in reality of New World 

 origin, and that a single Mexican species was accidentally introdi'^^ed into 

 the Philippines, where it attracted scientific attention before it was recog- 

 nized in America. This seems the more likely from the circumstance 

 that Mexico and the Philippines were under the same national control, 

 and early connected by a certain amount of oceanic traffic. This being 

 the case, the transference of seed from Acapulco, the most important 

 Pacific port of Mexico, to the neighborhood of Manila, presents no 

 inherent improbability. The writer is under obligation to M. Robert 

 Buser of the De Candollean Herbarium for critical comparison, notes, 

 and sketches relative to this and related species. 



In this paper the term, ffuit is applied to the ray-achene and the closely 

 enveloping bract. 



§ 1. EuMELAMPODiUM, DC. Inner (fructiferous) bracts of the invo- 

 lucre exceeding the inclosed achene and developed at the summit into a 

 cup or hood (this obsolete ia some forms of M. sericeum). — Prodr. v. 

 518 (1836). 



* Lower surface of the leaves sparingly pubescent to hirsute, villous, or tomentose, 



but not sericeous. 



-1- South American species : hoods scarcely or not at all appendaged. 



->-»■ Herbaceous annual : rays conspicuous, 6.5 mm. long, unguiculate. 



1. M. PALUDICOLA, Taubert in Engl. Jahrb. xxi. 455 (1896). — 

 Swamps on the Paranahyba River, Prov. Goyaz, Brazil, Ule, no. 2978. 

 Not seen by the writer. 



•M- t-t- Suffrutescent : rays very small, inconspicuous. 



2. M. suFFRUTicosuM, Baker in Mart. Fl. Bras. iv. pt. 3, 162 (1884). 

 On the Esmeralda plains of the upper Orinoco in S. Venezuela. A 

 species omitted from the Index Kewensis. The achenes are crowned by 

 a shallow cup, otherwise the plant would be placed next M. camphoratum, 

 to which according to the original description it is presumably related. 



H- -(- Species of Mexico and S. United States. 



** Rays short and inconspicuous : appendage of the hood elongated, recurved 

 or coiled : heads usually (but not always) subsessile or short-peduncled. 



