6 New Species of South American Plants 



half the length of the ovary, which is 3 mm. long, dark-brown, 

 lanceolate sharply angled, and roughish. Perigone 4 or 5 mm. 

 broad, dark-colored, the lobes ovate, obtuse, pubescent within. 

 Styles stout, entire, obtuse, strongly recurved, united only at 

 the very base. 



Staminate Plant.— (Only young inflorescence seen) Racemes 

 2 or 3 together, in the young state not longer than the leaves, 

 the rachis puberulent. Bractlets similar to those of the pis- 

 tillate flowers, longer than the stout pedicels. Perigone pilose 

 within. Stamens 3, too young for their characters to be de- 

 termined. 



"A vine to 10 feet, of scrubby growth. San Lorenzo Ridge, 

 6500 feet, February 27. Not common." (Herbert Smith, 

 Colombia, 2299.) 



Dioscorea truncata. 



Staminate Plant. — Glabrous, the branchlets slender, finely 

 sulcate, the internodes about 5 cm. long. Petioles about 15 

 mm. long, slender, slightly broader toward the summit, narrowly 

 channelled. Blades 5 to 7 cm. long, 2.5 to 4 cm. broad, ovate, 

 the base from truncate to very shallowly and broadly cordate, 

 acuminate and attenuate at the summit, very thin, 5 to 7 

 nerved, the venation very finely reticulate. Racemes numer- 

 ous, 7 to 10 cm. long, very slender, short- peduncled, bearing 

 the flowers mostly 2 together on a slender peduncle about as- 

 long as the pedicels or a little shorter and subtended by a scari- 

 ous lanceolate bract, nearly as long as itself. Pedicels about 

 1.5 mm. long, slender, the flower nearly 3 mm. broad, the peri- 

 gone lobes nearly twice the length of the tube, lance-ovate, 

 obtuse. Stamens 6, distinct except at the very base, the slender 

 filaments as long as the perigone-tube, the anther-cells con- 

 tiguous. Staminodia none'. 



Pistillate Plant. — Racemes 15 to 20 cm. long, slender, 

 loosely flowered, slenderly peduncled. Flowers sessile or the 

 short pedicels adnate to the rachis, the bractlets ovate, scarious, 

 about 2.5 mm. long. Ovary 5 mm. long, linear, pubescent, the 

 perigone 2 mm. broad, the tube crateriform, ribbed, the lobes- 

 lanceolate, obtuse. Defective stamens 6. Three styles united, 

 except at the summit, where they are 2-lobed. Fruit 18 mm. 

 long, 10 mm. broad, elliptical, light-brown, glabrous, tipped by 

 the persistent perigone. 



Of the staminate plant. Smith says "Twining to 15 feet, 

 common in thickets below 1500 feet. Collected at Cienaga, 

 near sea-level, Sept. 10." Of the pistillate plant, "Thickets, 

 near the coast, Playa Brava, Nov. 17." Herbert Smith, Co- 

 lombia. (No. 2302.) 



