New Species of South American Plants 43 



than half as long, somewhat quadrangular, tuberculate, pur- 

 phsh, subtended by the persistent and accrescent calyx, and 

 bearing four persistent styles which are linear, stout, and un- 

 divided. Cells 4, each one-seeded, the arilled seed attached 

 by the middle of the face to the central placenta. Seed 4 mm. 

 long, triquetrous, black, shghtly wrinkled. 



Flowering Specimens : "A shrub, 6 to 8 feet, edges of dry 

 forest, 6 miles south of Mametoca, about 400 feet, April 11," 

 and "a shrub of shrubby tree to 7 or 8 feet, in dry thickets near 

 Masinga, 250 feet, May 30, the flowers pale greenish. I believe 

 that No. 410 is the fruit of this species." (Herbert H. Smith, 

 Columbia, No. 1716.) 



Fruiting Specimen: "A shrub or small tree, occasional in 

 dry forest below 1,000 feet. Masinga, July 31." (Herbert 

 H. Smith, Colombia, No. 410.) 



This species was at first regarded as P. nobilis, and may be 

 the same as Eggers' Ecuador No. 15574. Farther study, how- 

 ever, convinces me that it is distinct from that glabrous plant. 

 A specimen collected on the lower Orinoco, Venezuela by Rusby 

 and Squires is pubescent, but I am now inclined to include that 

 with the present species. 



Croton (§ Lasiogyne) bondaensis. 



Densely short-stellate-tomentose and gray-green. Branch- 

 lets short, stout, densely leafy, bluntly angled or sulcate. Stip- 

 ules setaceous and brown from a broad green base, 6 mm. long, 

 deciduous. Petioles 6 to 8 mm. long, stout, the glands at the 

 summit stipitate and discoid. Blades 4 to 7 cm. long, 2 to 4 

 cm. wide, ovate, with rounded base and abruptly short-acumin- 

 ate and acute summit, thickish, coarsely and unevenly serrate- 

 dentate, with acute teeth and sinuses and in the latter an oc- 

 casional gland similar to those of the petiole, the venation 

 slightly prominent beneath, the secondaries about 6 or 7 on a 

 side, strongly falcate-ascending, and obscurely connecting at 

 some distance from the margin, the remaining venation obscure. 

 Lower bracts broad, gray-green, the upper setaceous like the 

 stipules, about equaling the globose buds. Spikes terminal, 

 solitary or nearly so, leafy-bracted at the base, rather short, 

 the pistillate flowers below, the staminate above. 



Staminate Flowers. — Calyx parted nearly to the base, the 

 lobes 2 mm. long, ovate, obtusish, thick. Disk of 5 thick, 

 fleshy, brown, obovate or short-stipitate glands attached to the 

 bottom of the calyx. Petals spatulate, unguiculate, thin, fim- 

 briate. Stamens 10, about as long as the calyx, the filaments 

 filiform, the anthers broadly ovate. 



