New Species of South American Plants 49 



Spikes 3 to 3.5 cm. long, the lower portion, sometimes half of 

 the length, bearing several pistillate bracts, the upper staminate 

 portion about 3 mm. thick, densely flowered. 



Staminate Flowers. — Pedicels filiform, nearly or quite as 

 long as the flower, which is 1.5 mm. broad when fully expanded. 



Pistillate Flowers. — Bracts foliaceous, veiny, 8 mm. broad, 

 3 mm. long, cordate and clasping, reniform, the margin rounded, 

 crenate and long-ciliate. Ovary a little more than i mm. broad, 

 and half as high depressed, lightly lobed. Styles 8 mm. long, 

 very slender, distinct, sparingly branched, the branches ex- 

 tremely fine. 



"A shrub to 5 or 6 feet. Occasional in damp and shady 

 ground in dry forest region below 1,500 feet. Nearly as vari- 

 able as No. 1417, but always distinguished by the long ped- 

 uncles (Pistillate portions of spikes. — H. H. R.). Specimen 

 collected near Masinga, 400 feet, October." (Herbert H. Smith, 

 Colombia, No. 429.) 



Pera benensis. 



Leaves lepidote on the lower surface, apparently from the 

 bases of the fallen hairs, the middle portion pubescent. Branch- 

 lets short, stout, coarsely angled and nodose from the fallen 

 leaves. Petioles i to 2 cm. long, slender, channeled above, the 

 blades 6 to 12 cm. long, 4 to 7 cm. broad, oval with rounded 

 base and very slightly produced obtuse summit, entire, deep- 

 green, glabrous above, with the midrib lightly grooved, the 

 slender venation lightly prominent on both sides, the principal 

 secondaries numerous, straightish, spreading widely, connecting 

 at a considerable distance from the margin. Of the inflorscence, 

 only the old fruiting cymes are present, the capsules having 

 dehisced and lost their seeds. These cymes are small, sub- 

 sessile at the base of the branchlets and dense. Fruits shortly 

 and stoutly pedicelled, apparently about 5 mm. broad. The 

 open valves are nearly one cm. long and half as broad. Seeds 

 5 or 6 mm. long, ovoid, lightly compressed, black, strongly shin- 

 ing, with a small, light-brown strophiole. 



At the Junction of the Rivers Beni and Madre de Dios, 

 Bolivia, August 1886 (Rusby No. 2646). 



The superficial appearance of this species is identical with 

 that of P oppositifolia, of Cuba, but the seeds are several times 

 larger than those of the latter, and are characteristically distinct. 



Chaetocarpus pearcei. 



Specimen in fruit. Branchlets stout, flexuous, terete, no- 

 dose and corky-roughened. Petioles 6 to 8 mm. long, stout, 



