796 CONTBIBUTIONS FROM THE NATIONAL HERBARIUM. 



Chiapas, Tabasco, and Yucatan, and probably elsewhere. West Indies, Cen- 

 tral America, and South America ; type from Cartagena, Colombia. 



Tree, 12 to 15 meters high; leaves long-petiolate, 5-lobate, 15 to 30 cm. 

 broad or larger, deeply cordate at base, glabrate above, stellate-tomentose be- 

 neath when young but often glabrate in age, the lobes rounded to acutish at 

 apex, entire; panicles longer or shorter than the petioles, many -flowered, the 

 calyx open-campanulate, 2.5 to 3 cm. wide, yellow spotted with purple ; carpels 

 of the fruit 10 em. long, tomentulose, hispid within; seeds oval, about 2 cm. 

 long, castaneous. " Bellota " (Tabasco); " castauas " (the seeds; Tabasco); 

 " castano " (Guatemala, Honduras); " Panama " (Nicaragua, Costa Rica): 

 " camaj6n duro " (Colombia); " camaruca " (Cuba); " anacagiiitas " (Porto 

 Rico). 



The plant is employed locally for catarrhal and pectoral affections. For an 

 illustration of this species see Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb. 8: pi. 56. 

 2. Sterculia mexicana R. Br. in Horsf. PI. Jav. Rar. 227. 183S-52. 



Chiapas and Tabasco ; type from Chiapas. 



Leaves long-petiolate ; leaflets 7 to 9, narrowly oblong-lanceolate, 12 to 30 cm. 

 long, acute or acuminate, petiolulate, sparsely stellate-pubescent at first but soon 

 glabrate, pinnate-nerved ; panicles about 30 cm. long, many-flowered ; calyx 2 

 cm. broad, lobed nearly to the base, densly pubescent. 



EXCLUDED SPECIES. 



Sterculia oblongifolia DC. Prodr. 1: 482. 1824. Described from Mexico, the 

 description based upon one of Sesse and Mocino's drawings. According to Hors- 

 field and Bennett, this is Cola acuminata (Beauv.) Horsf. & Benn., the cola nut, 

 an African tree which is cultivated in tropical America. The writer has seen 

 specimens from Jamaica and Costa Rica but none from Mexico. 



2. CHIRANTHODENDRON Larreategui, Descr. Chiranthod. 17. 1805. 



The genus consists of a single species. 

 1. Chiranthodendron pentadactylon Larreategui, Descr. Chiranthod. 17. 1805. 



Cheirostemon platanoides Humb. & Bonpl. PI. Aequin. 1: 82. pi. 2Jf. 1808. 



Chiranthodendron platanoides Baill. Hist. PI. 4: 69, 1873. 



Mountains of Oaxaca, and often cultivated elsewhere. Guatemala. 



Tree, 12 to 15 meters high, the trunlj often 40 cm. in diameter ; leaves long- 

 petiolate, 12 to 30 cm. long, acutish to acuminate, deeply cordate at base, irregu- 

 larly and shallowly 3 to 7-lobate or nearly entire, glabrate above, stellate- 

 tomentose beneath ; peduncles short, 1-flowered, opposite the leaves ; calyx 

 campanulate, 3.5 to 4.5 cm. long, deeply 5-lobate, green, streaked with red, 

 with a large pit inside at the base of each lobe ; petals none ; stamen column 

 elongate, dividing into usually 5 branches, these linear, simulating long 2-celled 

 anthers ; capsule narrow, about 15 cm. long, deeply sulcate, loculicidally 5- 

 valvate, hispid within ; seeds small, black and shining, with a fleshy appendage 

 at the hilum. " MapasGchil " (the flower; from the Nahuatl, macpal-xocMtl, 

 "hand-flower"); " macpalxochicuahuitl " (the tree; Nahuatl); " arbol de las 

 manitas," " flor de manitas," " manita de le6n," " mano de leon " (Mexico) ; 

 " teyaqua " (MichoacS,n, Le6n) ; " palo de tayuyo," "mano de mico " (Guate- 

 mala ) . 



The hand-flower tree is one of the most celebrated of Mexican plants, and 

 was well known to the early inhabitants. It is restricted in its distribution, and 

 for a long time the only tree known to the residents of the Valley of Mexico 

 was one growing at Toluca. Even long after the Conquest this was believed 



