734 CONTEIBUTIOKS FROM THE NATIONAL, HERBARIUM. 



93. ELAEOCARPACEAE. Elaeocarpus Family. 



Trees ; leaves alternate or subopposite, simple ; flowers perfect, 4 or 5-parted ; 

 sepals valvate ; petals present or absent ; stamens numerous ; fruit baccate or 

 capsular. 



Fruit baccate; petals present 1. MUNTINGIA. 



Fruit capsular; petals none 2. SLOANEA. 



1. MUNTINGIA L. Sp. PI. 509. 1753. 



1. Muntingia calabura L. Sp. PI. 509. 1753. 



Guerrero to Veracruz, Yucatan, and Chiapas. West Indies, Central America, 

 and northern South America ; type from Jamaica. 



Small tree, 6 to 10 meters high ; leaves alternate, lance-oblong, 6 to 14 cm. 

 long, acuminate, oblique at base, 3-nerved, dentate, glabrate above, tomentose 

 beneath ; flowers white, perfect, the long pedicels solitary or fasciculate in 

 the leaf axils; sepals 5; petals 5, about 1 cm. long; stamens numerous, free; 

 fruit baccate, globose, about 1 cm. in diameter, glabrous, many-celled. " Capu- 

 lin " ( Tabasco, Yucatitn, Oaxaca, Veracruz, Guerrero, Costa Rica, Guatemala, 

 El Salvador, Nicaragua); " capoHn " (Yucatdn) ; " jonote " (Oaxaca); " ber- 

 silana " (Chiapas); " puan " (Veracruz, Palmer); " palman " (Puebla, Rami- 

 rez); " capull " (Cuba, El Salvador); " capulina," " memizo," " guacima 

 cerezo " (Cuba); " chitoto," " manguito," " acuruco," " chirriador," " maja- 

 giiito " (Colombia); " mahaujo " (Colombia, Venezuela); " datiles," " ratiles " 

 (Philippines, the latter a Tagalog corruption); " cedrillo," " majagua " 

 (Venezuela); " memiso " (Santo Domingo). 



The tree has become naturalized in Siam and the Philippines. The bark 

 contains a tougli fiber which is used in tropical America for making rope and 

 twine. The fruit is edible ; it is yellow or red and very sweet. Descourtilz 

 ascribes antispasmodic properties to the flowers. 



2. SLOANEA L. Sp. PI. 512. 1753. 



1. Sloanea mexicana Standi., sp. nov. 



Tj'pe from La Siberia, Michoacan or Guerrero, altitude 1,000 meters 

 {Langlass6 980; U. S. Nat. Herb. no. 386311). 



Tree, 15 to 20 meters high, with yellow flowers ; branchlets densely tomentu- 

 lose; petiole 9 cm. long, tomentulose; leaf blades (only one seen) elliptic, 35 

 em. long, 17.5 cm. wide, subcordate at base, subacute at apex, thin, sinuate 

 toward the apex, glabrous except on the veins, there puberulent, the venation 

 prominent beneath ; flowers in axillary racemes, these about 7-flowered, 

 tomentulose, the stout pedicels 0.5 to 2.5 cm. long ; sepals 5 to 8, oblong, or 

 ovate-oblong, obtuse or acutish, tomentulose, 5 to 7 mm. long; stamens very 

 numerous, longer than the calyx, puberulent ; anthers linear-lanceolate, less 

 than half as long as the filaments; ovary 4-celled, densely pilose. 



Several species of Sloanea have been reported from Central America, but 

 none of them agree with the Mexican specimens. 



94. TILIACEAE. Linden Family. 



Trees or shrubs; leaves alternate, simple, sometimes lobate, stipulate, com- 

 monly deciduous ; pubescence mostly of branched hairs ; flowers usually per- 

 fect ; sepals 5, rarely 3 or 4, free or coherent, commonly valvate ; petals as 

 many as the sepals, or wanting ; stamens usually numerous ; fruit 2 to 10-celled, 

 or by abortion 1-celled, dry or drupaceous, dehiscent or indehiscent. 



