788 CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE NATIONAL HERBARIUM. 



Myrodia funehrU Benth, Journ. Linn. Soc. Bot, 6: 115. 1862. 



Reported from Oaxaca and Veracruz ; originally described from Izticar, 

 Puebla. Guatemala and El Salvador. 



Tree, often 20 meters high, with broad dense crown ; leaves oval or elliptic, 

 short-petiolate, 13 to 40 cm. long, obtuse to acuminate, rounded at base, glab- 

 rous except for the tufts of hairs in the axils of the veins beneath ; flowers 

 short-pedicellate ; calyx bracteolate, tomentulose ; petals pure white, linear- 

 oblong, the slender claws as long as the calyx; stamen tube twice as long as 

 the calyx ; fruit subglobose. " Cacahuaxochitl," "cacaoxochitl," " flor de cacao," 

 " madre de cacao," " rosa de cacao." 



In connection with the original description of the genus Lexarza, La Llave ' 

 gives the following account of the tree : " The President of the Republic, Guada- 

 lupe Victoria, while on a military expedition to the southern region, between 

 Oaxaca and Angelopolis, passing through Izticar and admiring the funereal 

 majesty of Lexarza, had sent to me a branch with flowers and fruit, that a 

 description might be drawn of it ; afterward my colleague. Doctor Jose Ignacio 

 Luna, sent a drawing of the tree, with accurate measurements, adding the 

 information that to the splendid shelter formed by the lower branches of the 

 tree, the primitive inhabitants were wont to come to mourn their dead. He 

 stated also that flowers were added to the pozonque (a cold drink made of 

 cacao) which they use at weddings and festivals, to give flavor to it, for 

 which reason, perhaps, the tree is given the vernacular name of cacahoaxochitl, 

 which may be rendered into Spanish as flor de cacao. According to the same 

 authority, no other tree of the same sort is found at Izlacar or elsewhere in 

 the region, but Doctor Miguel Valentin, of Huamantla, no mean student of 

 natural history, after reading the description of the tree, assured me that 

 when he was making a journey through the Mixteca he observed trees similar 

 to this." 



In Costa Rica the young shoots of some species (known as " garrocho " and 

 " molenillo "), which develop their branches, like cacao, in whorls of 5, are 

 used to make " molenillos," the utensils with which chocolate is beaten to a 

 froth. 



2. Quararibea fieldii Millsp. Field Mus. Bot. 1 : 309. 1898. 



Yucatan ; type from Hacienda de Chabenche. 



Leaves oblong-obovate, 15 to 30 cm. long, acute, obtuse or broadly cuneate at 

 base, glabrous ; flowers subsessile ; calyx 2.5 cm. long, tomentulose ; petals 



^ Don Pablo de La Llave was born in the city of C6rdoba, Mexico, in 1773. 

 He was educated in the Colegio de San Juan de Letran, in that city, and later 

 gave courses in philosophy in the same institution. He pursued ecclesiastical 

 studies and received the degree of doctor of theology when he was scarcely 19 

 years of age. In 1801 he went to Spain to continue his studies, this course 

 being necssary during the Spanish domination, since at that time the offices 

 of the church were given only to those who had been born in Spain or educated 

 there. He became deeply interested in natural history, especially botany, 

 and was finally appointed director of the botanical garden at Madrid. He 

 took an interest in political affairs, also, and in 1812 was elected a deputy of the 

 Cort§s. In 1823 he returned to Mexico, and was appointed Minister of Justice 

 and Ecclesiastical Affairs, a position which he filled until 1825. In 1830 he 

 was president of the Senate chamber. La Llave died in 1833. He published 

 numerous biographical and patriotic papers and treatises upon natural science. 

 He was associate author, with Lexarza, of the Novorum Vegetabilium Descrip- 

 tiones, published in 1824-25. He described several new genera of plants, most 

 of which were dedicated to the heroes of the Mexican war of independence. 



