134 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM. vol. 54. 



Genus CALLIANDRA Bentham. 



CALLIANDRA OBLIQUA Engelhardt. 



Plate 15, figs. 23-29. 



Calliandra oblique. Engelhardt, Sitz. Naturw. Gesell. Isis in Dresden, 1894, Abh. 

 1, p. 15, pi. 1, fig. 55. 



Description. — Leaflets small, variable in size, oblong in outline, 

 sessile or subsessile, acutely pointed, with a very inequilateral, 

 obliquely truncate, or subcordate base. Margins entire. Texture 

 coriaceous. Length ranging from 7 to 28 mm. ; width ranging from 

 2 to 8 mm. Venation consisting of usually three primaries diverging 

 from the base, sometimes with subordinate veins from the base, con- 

 nected by circles toward the tip and connected by cross veinlets. A 

 fragment of a leaf shows three pairs of opposite leaflets. 



The leaflets of this species are the most abundant forms found at 

 Potosi, and each parting of the tuffs is strewn with them. They are 

 variable in size, and unless the venation can be seen are indistinguish- 

 able from the leaflets of Mimosa arcuatifolia Engelhardt; in fact, 

 Engelhardt figured but a single leaflet of Calliandra ohligua, which is 

 near its maximum size, and he probably confused the smaller leaflets 

 with Mimosa arcuatifolia. 



The venation is typical of Calliandra, but is also shared by some 

 species of Acacia. The present species is said by Engelhardt to be 

 practically identical with the existing Calliandra macrocephala 

 Bentham, of Brazil. It is also identical with an unnamed Calliandra 

 figured by Schenk.^ It may also be compared with the existing 

 Calliandra parvijlora Bentham. 



The modem species of Calliandra comprise over a hundred shrubs 

 and small trees of tropical and subtropical America, with a few out- 

 lying species in farther India, Ceylon, and Madagascar. The genus 

 is well represented in eastern Bolivia, and some species extend west- 

 ward to the subandean zone of the eastern slopes, but so far as I 

 know none occur in or west of the Cordillera Real or eastern Andes. 



Plesiotypes.—Csit. No. 35128-35134, U.S.N.M. 



CALLIANDRA OVATIFOLIA Engelhardt. 



Calliandra ovati/olia Engelhardt, Sitz. Naturw. Gesell. Isis in Dresden, 1894, 

 Abh. 1, p. 12, pi. 1, fig. 56. 



Description. — Leaflets inequilateral, sessile, orbicular or broadly 

 elliptical in outline, not much longer than wide. Apex more nearly 

 equilateral than the base. Margins entire. Texture coriaceous. 

 Midrib stout, curved. Secondaries numerous, thin, subparaUel, 

 diverging from the midrib at wide angles. 



1 Palaeophytologie, 1890, p. 693, fig. 8. 



