564 CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE NATIONAL HEEBAFJUM. 



Samaras with a single dorsal wing, this sometimes reduced to a keel or 

 beak. 

 Style 1 ; stamens 5 or 6. 



Samaras winged 12. JANUSIA. 



Samaras merely keeled, nutlike 13. ASPICARPA. 



Styles 3 ; stamens 10. 



Stigmas clavate or truncate 14. BANISTERIOPSIS. 



Stigmas borne on the dilated thin style tips. 



Samara wings thickened along the dorsal (outer) edge 



15. BANISTERIA. 

 Samara wings thickened along the ventral (inner) edge. 



16. STIGMAPHYLLON. 



1. BYRSONIMA L. Rich. ; Juss. Ann. Mus. Paris 18: 481. 1811. 



Byrsonima spicata (Cav.) DC. is reported from Mexico by Small, but the 

 writer has seen no specimens referable to it. 



1. Byrsonima crassifolia (L.) DC. Prodr. 1: 579. 1824. 



Malpighia crassifolia L. Sp. PI. 126. 1753. 



Byrsonima cotini folia II. B. K. Nov. Gen. & Sp. 5: 152. pi. J,.',l- 1822. 



Byrsonima oaxacana Juss. Ann. Sci. Nat. II. 13: 332. 1840. 



Byrsonima karwinskiana Juss. Ann. Sci. Nat. II 13: 333. 1840. 



Sinaloa to Chiapas and Veracruz. Central America, West Indies, and north- 

 ern South America. 



Erect shrub or tree, 2 to 9 meters high ; leaves olilong to ovate or rounded- 

 elliptic, mostly 4 to 15 cm. long, short-petiolate, acute to rounded at apex, 

 densely tomentose when young with reddish or whitish hairs, often glabrate 

 in age ; flovi-ers yellow or reddish ; fruit a yellow drupe, about 1 cm. in 

 diameter. Most generally known as "nance," " nanche," or " nauclii " ; " chi " 

 (Yucatan, Maya); " nananche " (Alcocer) ; "nanche de perro," " nanzin- 

 quahuitl " {Ramirez); " changugo " (Michoacan, Guerrero); " nantzinxocotl " 

 (Urbina) ; "nance agrio " (Guerrero, Tabasco); " nancite " (Costa Rica, El 

 Salvador, Nicaragua); "nance verde " (El Salvador); "yuco," " nanci," 

 " chaparro," " peralejo " (Columbia). 



Small recognized B. oaxacana and B. karwinskiana as distinct species, but 

 the characters by which they are supposed to be distinguishable seem not to 

 hold in the material examined by the writer. 



The plant is much cultivated in Mexico and Central America for its acid 

 edible fruit. This is usually eaten raw, but is sometimes cooked, and is 

 used also for preparing a beverage similar to lemonade. In some localities 

 it has been fermented to produce an alcoholic drink. The wood, which is said 

 to be reddish and to have, a specific gravity of about 0.67, is employed iu 

 various ways. The bark is used for tanning and dyeing, and is said, in addi- 

 tion, to yield a strong fiber. The plant is astringent, and various parts hav< . 

 been used in domestic medicine for fevers, colds, and snake bites. 



2. MALPIGHIA L. Sp. PI. 425. 1753. 



Erect shrubs or small trees; leaves opposite, entire in the Mexican species, 

 flowers in short axillary cymes; calyx with 6 to 10 glands; petals variously 

 dentate ; fruit a drupe, usually red. 



Malpighia urens L., a West Indian species, has been reported from Mexico, 

 probably erroneously. The following vernacular names are reported for it, 

 but it is not certain that they apply even to a plant of this genus: "Ahualt- 

 zocotl," " ahualzocotlque," " palo bronco." ^ 



