6 COLOMBIAN MAHOGANY. 



almost. 5 centimeters in diameter (fig. 2, a, b); the zone (calycary) 

 where the sepals are attached is from 5.5 to 6 centimeters from the 

 base of the fruit. The exterior face of the stopper-shaped lid (oper- 

 culum), which has a small pit-like depression at the center, is from 

 2.5 to 3 centimeters in diameter and 0.8 to 1 centimeter thick (fig. 2, c 

 and e). The three-angled axis (columella), to which the seeds are 

 attached (fig. 2, e), is from -5 to 5.5 centimeters long, strongly joined 

 to the operculum, its plane faces from 1 to 1.5 centimeters broad at 

 the upper part, the margins of the faces slightly thickened and pro- 

 truding (fig. 2, e and g). The three-angled seeds (fig. 2,f), 1 to 5, but 

 usually 5, in each cell, are from 13 to 15 millimeters long, from 5 to 6 

 millimeters broad, obovate-elongate, and more or less broadly 

 winged on the two angles in contact with the columella. The seeds 

 occur more or less regularly in two rows, overlapping one another, and 

 most of them are attached transversely on the columella. 



Although the measurements of the fruit taken by Miers (the origi- 

 nal describer of Cariniana) were evidently from larger specimens, his 

 description and drawings agree so well with the specimens recently 

 collected as to leave no doubt but that this later obtained material is 

 properly referable to Cariniana piriformis. 



There remains, however, one point to be made clear, namely, the 

 origin of the fruits studied by Miers, and the authority for citing the 

 tree as a native of Bolivia, an error, it is believed, which was followed 

 by the Kew Index and by subsequent authors. Alluding to the origin 

 of the fruit, Miers writes: "The label attached to the Linnean Society 

 spcimen, in Antoine's handwriting, says, 'Between riviere sinu 

 Plato Bolivia, New Granada,' which should possibly be interpreted 

 to mean some small river Betanie flowing into the Magdalena near 

 Plato." It is more likely, however, that the correct reading of An- 

 toine's label is Betanci, riviere Sinu, Etat de Bolivar, Nouv. Grenade 

 On Pereira's x map of the State of Bolivar there is a Betanci Lagoon 

 (Cienaga de Betanci) close to the Sinu River and at the foot of the 

 last spurs of Antioquia Mountains (Serrania de San Jeronimo). This 

 same lagoon is seen again, with the name even more distinctly writ- 

 ten, on the map of the State of Antioquia accompanying Miers' s 

 work. 



But oven with Miers's strange reading of Antoine's label it is diffi- 

 cult to see how the final interpretation was arrived at of giving 

 Bolivia, in the central part of the South American continent, as the 

 native country of this tree. That the tree grows in the low lands of 

 the former State of Bolivar, in Colombia, is confirmed by the speci- 

 mens here described, which are known to belong to the commercial 

 timber imported from Colombia to the United States under the name 

 of "Colombian mahogany." 



1 Pereira, Ricardo S. Les Etats-fnis de Colombie (Paris, 1883), map fronting p. 177. 



