363 
might be polyphyletic, or, alternatively, that it originally inhabited 
a region far to the north of its present area of distribution, as is 
known to have been the case in numerous genera now confined to 
North America and the Chino-Japanese region. 
The great similarity between the Central American Microtropis 
occidentalis and the Indian M. discolor renders a polyphyletic origin 
extremely improbable ; whereas the montane character of Micro- 
tropis, and the wide distribution of many of the genera of Celastraceae 
avour the view that the area of the genus formerly extended further 
to the north. 
Kry To THE AMERICAN SP#CrES. 
Pedicels filiform :— 
Pedicels about 2 mm. long ; leaves drying 
brown, lateral nerves oblique, conspicuous 
ower surface, reticulation in- 
istine vee ooh ee sas 1, parvetora. 
Pedicels about 5 mm, long; leaves drying 
grey, lateral nerves patulous, not con- 
spicuous, reticulation distinct and very 
close ‘we ove wie eee . 2, filipes. 
Pedicels stoutish :— 
'ymes three or four times forked, many- 
flowered, branching divaricate  ... ‘ 
Cymes once or twice forked, few-flowered, 
branching not divaricate :— 
Leaves oblanceolate, 4-6 cm. long, cori- 
3, Schiedeana, 
aceous ... as i ae stale, guatemalensis. 
Leaves elliptic, 7-11 em. long, chartaceous 5. occidentalis. 
1, M. parviflora, Sprague, comb. nov.—— Euonymus pu? 
Hemsl. Diagn. Pl. Nov. pars i. p. 63 Biol. Centr.-Amer., Bot., 
vol. i. p. 188. 
Nicaragua. Chontales, Tate, 292. ae 
The ovary was described doubtfully as 4-celled. It is, however, 
2-celled, as in the other species of Microtropts. 
elliptica, apice breviter acutissime acuminat 4 
3- longa, 1°2-3°7 cm. lata, mi 
formes 0°5-2 em. longi ; rami primarH 3-8 mm., se intl? 
longi, tertiarii obsoleti, ita ut pedicelli fasciculati videntur ; pedi 
liform 
ter 4°5 mm. 
Ja patula, transverse elliptica, 
m. lata, ite densiuscule puberula. 
Vi . . Mi 
x 0°75 mm vix 2 mm. diametro. Diseus inter 
: 6.1 
Petala patentia, suborbicularia, 
