214 CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE NATIONAL, HERBARIUM. 



Tree, sometimes 30 meters high, with a trunk a meter in diameter, the crown 

 broad and dense ; bark gray ; leaves bright green, glabrous, entire ; flowers uni- 

 sexual, in dense globose pedunculate heads; fruit subglobose, yellow or orange, 

 containing a single large seed about 12 mm. broad. " Ram6n " (Yucatdn, 

 Oaxaca) ; "ox" (Yucat&n, Tabasco, Maya); "ojite" (Veracruz, Tamaulipas, 

 Oaxaca ; from the Nahuatl, " oxitl ") ; " nazareno " (Oaxaca, Reko) ; " oxotzin " 

 (Veracruz, Fiiick) ; " capomo " (Tepic, Jalisco, Veracruz, Oaxaca); " apomo " 

 (Sinaloa) ; " Juandiego " (Oaxaca, Reko); "ojoche" (Nicaragua); "maseco" 

 (Guatemala. Honduras). 



The wood is said to be white, or sometimes grayish or tinged with flesh color, 

 compact, hard, and tine-grained ; it is used in carpenter work. The tree is 

 valued highly for forage, the branches being cut and fed to different kinds of 

 stock, and tlie fallen leaves are eaten greedily by cattle. The tree is olton 

 planted for this purpose, and in some parts of Mexico it is a very important 

 forage plant. The milky juice is reported to yield a kind of rubber, and is used 

 as a calmant in asthma. It is reputed also to increase the flow of human milk, 

 this probably a relic of the old medical theory of signatures. The seeds are 

 said to be fattening for cattle, which are fond of them, and they are used also 

 as human food. For the latter purpose they are boiled or roasted, and eaten 

 alone or mixed with sugar, honey, or corn meal. They have a flavor resembling 

 that of chestnuts and are very nutritious. The seeds are sometimes roasted and 

 used as a substitute for coffee. 

 2. Brosimum conzattii Standi. Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb. 20: 211. 1919. 



Known only from the type locality, Cafetal San Rafael, Distrito de Pochutla, 

 Oaxaca. 



Similar to the preceding, of which it may be only a form, but with much 

 smaller, relatively narrower leaves, the embryo with an obtuse, rather than 

 acute, radicle. 



6. PSEUDOLMEDIA Trecul, Ann. Sci. Nat. III. 8: 129. 1847. 



1. Pseudolmedia oxyphyllaria Donn. Smith, Bot. Gaz. 20: 294. 1895. 



Veracruz. Guatemala; type from Volcan de Tecuamburro. 



A tree ; leaves elliptic-oblong, 11 to 23 cm. long, acuminate, entire, glabrous ; 

 flowers dioecious, the staminate ones in sessile heads, the pistillate solitary, 

 sessile, axillary, surrounded by silky bracts. 



Perhap not sufficiently distinct from P. spiiria (Swartz) Griseb., of the 

 Greater Antilles and Panama. 



7. CASTILLA ' Cervantes, Gaceta de Literatura de Mexico, Suppl. July 2, 1794. 

 Refkuences: Pittier, Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb. 13: 247-279. 1910; Cook, The 

 culture of the Central American rubber tree, U. S. Dept. Agr. Bur. PI. Ind. Bull. 

 49. 1903; Villada, El rtrbol del hule, Naturaleza 3: 31G-330. 1876. 



1. Castilla elastica Cervantes, Gac. Lit. Mex. Suppl. 1794. 

 Castilla lactiflua Cook, Science n. ser. 18: 438. 1903. 

 Veracruz to Sinaloa, Chiapas, and Yucatan ; type from Veracruz. 



* Sometimes written Ca^tilloa. The genus w^as' named in honor of Juan Diego 



del Castillo (1744-1793), pharmacist and economic explorer, who came to 

 Mexico in 1787 as a member of the famous naturalists' expedition sent out by 

 Charles III. As a result of the labors occasioned by his work, he fell ill and 

 died in the City of Mexico. He left a legacy of ."?4,000 to be used in publishing 

 the Flora Mexicana. A manuscript by his hand, entitled " Plantas descritas 

 en el via.ie de Acapulco," is said to be preserved in the Botanical Garden at 

 Madrid. 



