( 438 ) 
matic interpretations of the genus was a hopeless task, for the 
reason that nearly one-half of the species growing in the 
southeastern United States had been ignored by monograph- 
ers. 
The first member of this group described from our terri- 
tory was Svderoxylon lycioides L. Species Plantarum, Ed. 2, 
279, 1762. In 1788 Walter described several species under 
Stderoxylon, while in the same year Swartz founded the genus 
Bumela. Under this generic name species were described 
by Ventenat, Michaux, Nuttall, Rafinesque and Buckley. 
The latest and best interpretation of the genus, that of Dr. 
Gray in the Synoptical Flora of North America (revised), 
recognizes five species and one variety. A study* of the 
genus covering a period of over five years, has led me to con-- 
clusions quite different from any heretofore published. They 
are expressed in the following pages. 
BuMELIA Sw. Prodr. 49. 1788. 
Shrubs and trees of the southeastern United States and 
eastern tropical America. Thirteen species occur in the 
United States, while about thirty species are recorded as 
growing in the West Indies, Mexico and South America. 
Leaf-blades glabrous, or merely with scattered hairs or inconspicuously cob- 
eb eath 
Fruit oblong-cylindric. 1. B. angustifolia. 
Fruit subglobose or oval. 
eaf-blades of an obovate or spatulate type, mainly broadest above 
the middle. 
Twigs copiously Bees with deep red hairs. 
. B. rufotomentosa. 
Twigs glabrous or soon Sacin g so. 
Fruit less than 8 mm. long. 
Corolla-lobes about 1.5 mm. ae ; leaf-blades blunt; 
fruit 5 mm. long. . nticrocarpa. 
Corolla-lobes about 2 mm. ve eae blades retuse ; 
fruit 6-7 mm. long. 4. B. reclinaia. 
* Besides field observations, and‘ the specimens in the herbaria of the 
New York Botanical Garden and Columbia University, I have been able to 
examine this genus as represented in the herbaria of the New York College 
of Pharmacy, Harvard University, Lafayette College, Franklin and Marshall 
College, and the ee Herbarium. 
