Plants Collected in ParaguoAj. 241 



obtuse and mucronate at the apex, largest collected 10 cm. loup: and 

 4 cm. wide. Staminate flowers greenish-yellow, sometimes brown- 

 ish-purple, red in the bud. Berries 4 or 5 mm. in diameter, dark 

 red, on pedicels 5 or 6 mm. long-. 



Xotlioscorduill HaTescens, Kunth., Enum., iv, 459. 



Luque (715). 



A small bulbous plant 8-15 cm. high, the bulbs small, ovoid, 

 deep underground. Leaves narrowly linear, surpassing the scapes, 

 appearing with the flowers. Flow^ers in small umbels, 3-5 in an 

 umbel, the pedicels unequal, capillary, 10-18 mm. long. Perianth 

 6-8 mm. high, with a short tube ; the 6 lanceolate lobes somewhat 

 longer, yellow, 1-nevved, the nerve green on the inside and purplish 

 outside. Spathe white, membranous, tubular below, bifid on the 

 open portion above, much shorter than the pedicels. 



This pretty little flower decorates the sandy campos east of 

 Asuncion nearly all the year round. 



PONTEDERIACE.E. 

 Pontederia cordata, L., Sp. PL, 288. 



Villa Rica (490) ; Luque (301) ; Pilcomayo River (1040). Decem- 

 ber-May. 



As common in water and miry places throughout Paraguay as 

 in the United States. Called Aguapi in the native tongue. 



Piaropiis crassipes (Mart.), Britton. 



Pontederia crassipes, Mart., Nov. Gen., i, 9. t. 4. 



Eichornia a-assipes, Solms-Laubach in D.C. Mon. Phau,, iv, 527. 



Trinidad (265). December-January. 



A showy aquatic common in pools near Asuncion and other parts 

 of Paraguay. A long running stem rooting in the mud throws up 

 at intervals leaves or scapes. Sometimes a set of leaves and a scape 

 grow erect from a large body of fibrillate roots. Leaves of a firm 

 texture, like those of Pontederia cordata, various in shapfe, broadly 

 obovate or subreniform, sloping abruptly into the petiole, or occa- 

 sionally subcordate, the blades 3-5 cm. long, 3^-6 cm. broad ; peti- 

 oles 6-20 cm. long, frequently with an oval inflated sac near the 

 middle, or plane for their whole length, sheathing at the base. 

 Scape somewhat longer than the leaves, with a foliaceous bract 

 Annals N. Y. Acad. Sci., VII, Mar. 1893.— 16 



