484 CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE NATIONAL HERBARIUM. 



28. HESPEROTHAMNUS T. S. Biandeg. Univ. Calif. Publ. Bot. 6: 499. 1919. 

 Erect slirubs or trees; leaflets pinnately 5-folioIate; flowers purple or 

 purplish, large, In terminal racemes ; fruit broadly linear, bivalvate. 



Fruit about 17 mm. wide 1. H. littoralis. 



Fruit 7 to 10 mm. wide 2. H. grandis. 



1. Hesperothamnus littoralis T. S. Brandeg. Univ. Calif. Publ. Bot. 6: 499. 



1919. 

 Lonchocarpus UttoraUs T. S. Brandeg. Zoe 5: 157. 1903. 

 Southern Baja California. 



Shrub or small tree ; leaflets 3 to 6 cm. long, acute, densely pubescent ; fruit 

 about 8 cm. long. 



2. Hesperothamnus grandis Standi., sp. nov. 



Tuebla and Oaxaca ; type from Tehuac^n, Puebla {Rose & Hay 5869; U. S. 

 Nat. Herb. no. 395G57). 



Shrub or small tree, sometimes 7.5 meters high, the branchlets brownish^ 

 when young densely pilose with short, fulvous, spreading or reflexed hairs; 

 leaf rachis 4 to 10.5 cm. long, the petiolules 3 to 5 mm. long, the stipels 

 uniform ; leaflets elliptic-oblong, ovate-oval, elliptic, oval, or rounded-oval, the 

 terminal one sometimes rounded-obovate, 3.5 to 7 cm. long, 1.5 to 5.3 cm. 

 wide, rounded, obtuse, or subcordate at base, rounded to acute at apex, often 

 abruptly short-acuminate, thick, pale green, densely velvety-puberulent on the 

 upper Surface when young, beneath densely velvety-pilose with very short pale 

 hairs, or in age glabrate ; flowers fasciculate-racemose, short-pedicellate, the 

 racemes dense or interrupted, 4.5 to 11 cm. long, usually long-pedunculate and 

 equaling or longer than the leaves, the rachis densely short-pilose ; calyx 

 5 to 7 nmi. long, densely sericeous or short-pilose, the 4 lobes triangular or 

 lanceolate, usually subulate-acuminate, equaling or longer than the tube; petals 

 purplish, the standard thinly pilose outside with short, appressed or somewhat 

 spreading hairs, the blade about 1 cm. long and broad, the claw 3 mm. long, 

 the wing and keel petals of about the same length ; style glabrous ; fruit sessile. 

 5 to 6 cm. long, 6 to 10 mm. wide, compressed, bivalvate, strigose-sericeous, 

 the margins slightly thickened. 



The following additional collections belong here : 



I'XJEBLA : Near Tehuacftn, 1905, Rose, Painter tC- Rose 9923 ; in 1906, Rose 



& Rose 11281 ; Prinyle 6748. 

 Oaxaca : Canyon above Dominguillo, Prin^jle 5649. Six miles above 

 Dominguillo, altitude 1,350 to 1,650 meters, Nelson 1826a. 



29. MEIBOMIA Heist. ; Fabr. PI. Hort. Helmst. 168. 1759. 

 Herbs or shrubs, sometimes scandent ; leaves pinnate, the leaflets usually 3 

 but sometimes only 1 ; flowers conuuonly racemose, small, purple to white ; 

 fruit of 1 to several joints, often covered with hooked hairs, the joints thus 

 readily adhering to clothing. 



One of the largest genera of Mexican plants, but most of the species are 

 herbaceous. Besides the species listed here there are doubtless others which 

 sometimes become shrubs. The plants are often browsed by stock, and some 

 spcies of the genus have been cultivated as fodder crops. 

 Joints of the fruit notched on the upi^er side ; plants usually scandent. 



Leaflets suborbicular 1. M. painteri. 



Leaflets ovate or nearly so. 



•Joints of the fruit less than 1 cm. wide, much longer than broad. 



2. M. angustata. 

 Joints of the fruit about 2 cm. wide, nearly as broad as long. 



3. M. purpusii. 



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