1142 CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE NATIONAL HERBARIUM. 



A handsome vine, known in the United States as " yellow jasmine." The 

 root is reported to contain an alkaloid, gelsemine. A tincture of the root is 

 sometimes administered in domestic practice for rheumatism and gonor- 

 rhea. It is said to act as an arterial sedative, and in larger doses to produce 

 insensibility to pain, but its use is dangerous or even fatal. Large doses are 

 said to cause vertigo and perverted vision. 



2. PLOCOSPERMA Benth. in Benth. & Hook. Gen. PI. 2: 789. 1876. 



1. Plocosperma microphyllum Baill. ; Solenreder in Engl. & Prantl, Pflan- 

 zenfam. 42: 50. 1895. 



Oaxaca, and perhaps elsewhere. 



Rigid shrub ; leaves fasciculate or opposite, subsessile, oval or oblong, 8 to- 

 13 mm. long, rounded or shallowly emarginate at apex, rounded at base, entire,. 

 coriaceous, glabrous; flowers solitary or fasciculate in the axils, 5-parted; 

 fruit a terete capsule, 4 to 6 cm. long, 3 to 4 mm. in diameter ; seeds 2, about 2 

 cm. long, each with a dense tuft of silky bristles at the apex. 



3. STRYCITN-OS L. Sp. PI. 189. 17.53. 



The genus consists of about 200 species of trees, shrubs, or vines, dis- 

 tributed in the tropics of both hemispheres. Some of the species have edible 

 fruit. The seeds of 8. nux-vomica L., of India, furnish the drugs strychnine 

 and nux-vomica. 



1. Strychnos tepicensis Standi., sp. nov. 



Sinaloa and Tepic ; type from Acaponeta, Tepic (Rose 1441; U. S. Nat. Herb. 

 300272). 



Branches glabrous or when young sparsely hirtellous; leaves opposite, the 

 petioles 3 to 5 mm. long, hirtellous or glabrous, the blades ovate-elliptic, 5.5 

 to 10 cm. long, 2.5 to 5 cm. wide, acuminate or long-acuminate, obtuse at 

 base, coriaceous, glabrous, entire, quintuplinerved, the venation prominent be- 

 neath ; seeds strongly compressed, rounded-triangular or rounded, about 2 cm. 

 in diameter and 6 mm. thick. 



The material is very imperfect, consisting of leafy branches and a few seeds, 

 but it seems desirable to assign a specific name to it for the purpose of con- 

 venience. 



No species of the genus has been reported definitely from IMexico, but there 

 are casual reports of S. triplinervia Mart., a Brazilian plant, from San Juan 

 Bautista, Tabasco, where it is said to be known as " cabalonga de Tabasco,"^ 

 " mata-perros," and " veneno del diablo." The Tabascan plant is probably not 

 S. triplinervia, but it may be one of the few species that have been described 

 from Central America. 



4. EMORYA Torr. U. S. & Mex. Bound. Bot. 121. 1859. 

 A single species is known. 



1. Emorya suaveolens Torr. U. S. & Mex. Bound. Bot. 121. pi. 36. 1859. 



Nuevo Leon. Type collected in canyons of the Rio Grande below Presidio= 

 del Norte. 



Shrub, 1 to 2 meters high ; leaves opposite, short -petiolate, ovate or rhombic,. 

 1.5 to 5 cm. long, obtuse, obtuse or truncate at base, coarsely sinuate-dentate^ 

 glabrate above, minutely whitish-tomentulose beneath ; flowers in narrow termi- 

 nal thyrsiform panicles, sweet-scented ; calyx tubular, 4-lobate ; corolla tubular^ 

 3.5 cm. long, greenish yellow ; stamens 4, exserted ; fruit a 2-celled capsule. 



The genus was named for Major William H. Emory, United States Com- 

 missioner to the Mexican Boundary Survey. 



