28 New Species of South American Plants 



sub-terete, the blades 5 to 10 cm. long, 1.5 to 4 cm. broad, lance- 

 ovate, with blunt or rounded base and a very short, blunt 

 apical point, entire, thick and coriaceous, drying yellowish, 

 shining above, the finely reticulate venation prominent on both 

 sides, more so beneath, the principal secondaries about 12 on 

 each side, strongly falcately ascending, connected by a series 

 of slender loops near the margin. Stipules not present. 



The one fruit seen is 6 cm. long 2.5 cm. broad, slightly com- 

 pressed, slightly falcate, not angled, abruptly contracted into a 

 short thick base and a somewhat longer and broader blunt 

 terminal portion. 



Punta Piedras Island, lower Orinoco, Venezuela, May 1896. 

 (Rusby and Squires, No. 426.) 



The species is very near M. Guianensis and very nearly the 

 same as Fendler's specimen from Trinidad, which also appears 

 to be undescribed. 



Rourea laxiflora. 



Specimen in the young budding state. 



Inflorescence ferruginous, tomentellate, the branchlets stout, 

 terete, flexuous. Petioles 2 to 4 cm. long, slender, sub-terete, 

 swollen and corky-roughened at the base, where some are 

 sharply deflexed, then falcately ascending. Leaflets 3, the 

 lateral very short-petioled, 5 to 7 cm. long, 2.5 to 3 cm. broad, 

 regularly oblong with rounded base and abrupt very - short 

 obtuse point, somewhat coriaceous, glabrous, the midrib lightly 

 channelled above, prominent underneath, the principal secon- 

 daries very slender, 8 or 9 on each side, strongly falcate, the 

 venation inconspicuous and very finely anastomosing. Ter- 

 minal leaflet similar, but about a half larger, articulated about 

 two-thirds of the way above the origin of the laterals. Panicles 

 long and slenderly peduncled, compound, loose and open, the 

 slender branches sub-opposite, the buds crowded upon, the 

 short ultimate branchlets. Fruiting peduncles at the base of 

 the growth of the season. Fruit shortly and stoutly stipulate, 

 slightly curved, 2 cm. long, two-thirds as broad, ovoid, turgid, 

 minutely acute-pointed, lightly keeled on the convexity, glab- 

 rous but falcately nerved, externally dark-brown, light-brown 

 and shining within. Seed solitary, oval, slightly compressed 

 1.5 cm. long and half as broad, purple-black, shining except the 

 aril. Aril oblique, 2-lobed, the hilum in the sinus, lightly keeled 

 at the base, the margins crenate. 



Specimen unique, collected in Bolivia, by Miguel Bang, 

 without number or data. 



Toumatea costata. 



Inflorescence and veins of the lower leaf-surfaces minutely 

 downy. Branchlets very stout. Petiole of the one leaf seen 



