BRIEFER ARTICLES. 
New genus of Umbelliferee.—witH PLATE xxxu1.—Mr. John Donnell 
Smith has recently sent us from his last collection in Central Amer- 
ica a new genus of Umbelliferz. This is a most peculiar plant, not 
closely related to any known genus, nor is it easily referred to any 
tribe. It becomes a small tree fifteen feet high and is the only arbor- 
escent species which we have seen from North America. Only two 
plants were seen, growing at an altitude of 10,200% and constituting the 
highest vegetation on the volcano. 
This is the third genus of Umbellifere that has been brought to 
light by Mr. Smith in Central America. We have previously reported 
upon Guatemalan Umbelliferz in this journal for January and Octo- 
ber, 1890, and February, 1893. 
Myrrhidendron, genus nov.—Calyx teeth obsolete. Fruit linear, 
flattened dorsally, glabrous, shining. Carpels strongly flattened dor- 
sally; dorsal and intermediate ribs low; lateral ribs narrow-winged. 
Stylopodium low conical. Oil-tubes solitary in the intervals, two on 
the commissural side. Seed strongly flattened dorsally, with a flat 
face and furrowed under the oil-tubes—Arborescent. Leaves large, 
decompound; leaflets ovate. Flowers white. - 
A peculiar genus, with fruit of the shape and texture of Myrrhis but 
differently flattened. The carpels are flattened as in Peucedanece butin 
other respects unlike that tribe. 
Myrrhidendron Donnellsmithii sp. nov.—A small tree 3.6 to 4.8" 
high; trunk 7.5°™ in diameter: leaves large, 30™ or more long, ter- 
nately compound; leaflets ovate to lanceolate, 2.5 to 5.0™ long, acute, 
sharply and often irregularly serrate, the teeth more or less mucron- 
ate-tipped, glabrous, shining and impressed veiny above, dull and 
paler beneath and conspicuously reticulate; petiolules with a prom!- 
nent stipular ring which is more or less glandular tufted; petioles 
large, inflated: peduncles short: involucre few-leaved; involucels nu- 
merous, 3- to 4-toothed or cleft near the apex, scarious margined and 
strongly purplish veined: inflorescence more or less glandular puber- 
ulent; rays numerous, rarely equal; pedicels 8 to 1o™ long: fruit lin- 
ear, 10 to 12™ long, glabrous.—From the lava beds at the summit of 
the volcano Irazii in the province of Cartago, Costa Rica, March, 
1894 (no. 4,825).—JoHN M. CouLTer and J. N. Rosr, Lake Forest, Ill, 
and Washington, D. C. 
Pee ee ee ee 
