184 Annals of the Carnegie Museum. 



one of the few deciduous-leaved trees of the flora, essentially bare of 

 foliage at the time of our visit." 



No good specimens are at hand representing this species, it being 

 leafless at the time of our visit also. It is the most conspicuous tree 

 on the upper slopes of the Caballos Mts., at least during the dry- 

 season. See photograph (Plate XII). Towards the top of the 

 mountains the large sprawling limbs of the trees furnish favorite 

 habitats for a considerable number of epiphytic orchids and brome- 

 liads. 



Family STERCULIACE^. 



Key to the Species Enumerated. 

 Low shrubs or bushes; leaves widely acute to obtuse. 



Leaves and upper parts of plant more or less brownish or yellowish tomentose. 



455. Melochia hirsuta. 



Leaves and upper parts of plant whitish tomentose. .456. Waltheria americana. 



Tall shrubs or trees; leaves more or less acuminate 457. Cuazuma Guazuma. 



455. Melochia hirsuta Cavanilles. 



Melochia hirsuta Cavanilles, Monadelphiae Classis Dissertationes Decern, VL 



1788, p. 323; PI. 175, fig. I. 

 Riedlea serrata Ventenat, Choix des Plantes, 1803, PI. 37. 

 Riedlea hirsuta DeCandolle, Prodromus Systematis Naturalis Regni Vegetabilis, 



I, 1824, p. 492. 



Melochia serrata St. Hilaire & Naudin, Annales de Sciences Naturelles, Series 



II, vol. XVIII, 1842, p. 36. 



A common low shrub on the "Mai Pais" gravel lands near Nueva 

 Gerona, May 5, 1910, 0. E. Jennings, No. 16; near Nueva Gerona, 

 1904, A. H. Curtiss; northern portion of the island, Don Jose Blain, 

 No. 14 (Millspaugh, Field Columbian Museum, Botanical Series, 

 I, 1900, p. 430.) General Distribution: From Florida southwards 

 through the West Indies and continental tropical America. A com- 

 mon weed in the fields and pastures near Nueva Gerona, and where 

 frequently subjected to grass fires there develops eventually a large 

 woody base at the surface of the ground from which springs each 

 year a growth of short scraggly twigs. 



456. Waltheiia americana Linnaeus, 



Waltheria americana Linn^us, Species Plantarum, II, Ed. I, 1753, p. 673. 

 Waltheria indica Linn.eus, I. c. 



Along sandy beach at Bibijagua, May 7, 1910, 0. E. Jennings, 

 No. 74; open spot in jungle at Los Indios, May 20, 1910, 0. E. Jen- 



