802 CONTRIBUTIONS FEOM THE NATIONAL HERBARIUM. 



1. Phy sodium dubium Henisl. Diag. PI. Mex. 4. 1878. 



Morelos, Guerrero. Puebla, and Oaxaca ; type collected between Acatlan and 

 Chila, Puebla. 



Shrub or small tree, 2 to 6 meters high ; leaves slender-petiolate, broadly 

 ovate or ovate-cordate, 5 to 12 cm. long, acute to cuspidate-acuminate, sub- 

 cordate and oblique at base, serrulate, densely stellate-pubescent, green ; calyx 

 in fruit 1.5 to 2 cm. long, pale red or purple ; petals pale blue ; capsule about 

 6 mm. long. 



The calyx in this and the following species is similar to that of the genus 

 Physalis. In its form and coloration it suggests also the showy bracts of the 

 genus Bouffainiillca. 



2. Physodium corymbosum Presl, Rel. Haenk. 2: 150. pi. 72. 1836. 

 Jalisco, Colima, and Guerrero. 



Shrub, 3 meters high; leaves similar to those of P. dubium, but less pubes- 

 cent; calyx in fruit 2.5 to 3.5 cm. long, purple, the lobes obtuse or acute; 

 petals oblanceolate, much shorter than the calyx ; capsule 6 mm. long. 



2a. Physodium corymbosum acuminatum Rose, Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb. 1: 309. 

 1895. 



Sinaloa, Jalisco, and Michoacjln ; type from Jalisco. 



Shrub or small tree, 2 to 4 meters high, with gray bark ; leaves like those 

 of the species; calyx in fruit 3 to 4 cm. long, yellowish or purple, the lobes 

 acuminate. " Rechinador " (Sinaloa). 



The form of the calyx is decided different from that of typical P. corym- 

 bosum, but there appear to be intermediate forms, and no other distinctive 

 character is apparent. 



8. MELOCHIA L. Sp. PI. 774. 1753. 



Shrubs or herbs, the pubescence of simple or stellate hairs ; leaves dentate ; 

 flowers mostly small, cymose or in dense axillary glomerules ; calyx 5-lobate ; 

 petals 5, spatulate, persistent ; stamens 5, connate at the base or higher ; 

 capsule 5-celled, loculicidally 5-valvate, the cells 1-seeded, the carpels easily 

 separating, sometimes indehiscent. 



Capsule pyramidal. 

 Leaves glabrous or nearly so, green ; capsule glabrous or glabrate, very short- 



stipitate 1. M. pyramidata. 



Leaves densely stellate-tomentose, usually whitish beneath ; capsule densely 



pubescent, on a comparatively long stipe 2. M. tomentosa. 



Capsule depressed-globose. 



Flowers all or mostly on long pedicels, the pedicels glabrous except for a 

 few weak gland-tipped hairs. 

 Carpels of the fruit splitting along the back from apex to base ; bractlets 

 present at the base of the calyx and exceeding it in length. 



3. M. g-landulifera. 

 Carpels splitting along the back from the apex halfway to the base ; bract- 

 lets none at base of calyx 4. M. interrupta. 



Flowers sessile or nearly so, densely glomerate in the 'leaf axils; gland- 

 tipped hairs absent, or mixed with stellate ones. 



Bracts of the inflorescence linear-subulate, green 5. M. hirsuta. 



Bracts lanceolate or broader, dry, brown. 

 Stamens shorter than the styles. 

 Leaves glabrous beneath or with scattered appressed hairs ; inflores- 

 cence without viscid nubescence 6. M. nodiflora. 



