APRIL 1 TO JUNE 30, 1914. 61 



37872 to 37936. 



From Brazil. Collected by Messrs. P. H. Dorsett, A. D. Shamel, and Wilson 

 Popenoe, of the Bureau of Plant Industry. Received April 13, 1914. 

 Quoted notes (except as otherwise indicated) by Messrs. Dorsett and 

 Popenoe. 



37872. RoLLiNiA sp. Annonaceae. Rollinia. 



"(No. 76a. Larvas, Minas Geraes, Brazil. January 24, 1914.) Seeds 

 of a wild araticum collected near Lavras." 

 37873 to 37877. 



From Sao Joao del Rey, Minas Geraes, Brazil. 



37873. HiERAciuM sp. Cichoriacese. 



"(No. 77a. January 25, 1914.) Seeds of a small plant, appar- 

 ently an annual, occasionally seen along the watercourses and 

 around the edge of town. It grows to a height of li to 2 feet and 

 produces bright scarlet flowers about half an inch in diameter." 



37874. Caesalpinia sp. Csesalpiniacese. 



"(No. 88a. January 26, 1914.) Shrub 15 to 18 feet high, used as 

 a hedge plant ; stems very thorny. Seeds said to be poisonous. Col- 

 lected near the edge of town." 



37875. Jatropha curcas L. Euphorbiaceje. • ' Mamona. 

 "(No. 89a. January 26, 1914.) A low, spreading tree; sometimes 



used as a hedge plant. Fruit a 3-celled capsule, containing three 

 seeds. We were told that the common name is mamona, but this 

 belongs to the castor bean." 



37876. Ormosia monosperma (Swartz) Urban. Fabacete. 



"(No. 90a. January 26, 1914.) A bean used by the negroes to 

 keep off fever. A necklace of them is placed around the children's 

 necks. We have not seen the tree which produces them. These 

 were purchased from a negro woman." 



37877. CiPURA PALUDOSA Aublet. 



"(No. 91a, January 26, 1914.) A beautiful dwarf irislike plant, 

 growing along the river bank. Its grasslike leaves grow to a heiglit 

 of 12 or 15 inches under favorable conditions ; the flowers are not 

 over 1 inch in diameter, but of a most delicate light-blue color, 

 similar to that of the Iris pallida dalmatica. Well worthy of a 

 trial as a border plant in warm climates and for forcing." 



" Root a round tunicated bulb, covered with membranous integu- 

 ments. Leaves radical, about a foot high, narrow lanceolate, laxly 

 plicate, 3-nerved or thereabouts, with longitudinal parallel lamellose 

 ribs, thin, grass green, quite smooth, far acuminate, upright, spring- 

 ing from even petiolelike convolute submembranous bases, equitant 

 near the bulb. Stem round, short, strict, terminated by the flower 

 fascicle, which rises from the bosom of a 2-valved involucre, the 

 outer valve of which is similar to the leaves and though smaller 

 yet far longer than the fascicle and even with the summits of the 

 other leaves, inner valve several times less [than the outer], con- 

 volute. Pedicels of the fascicle equal to their valves, 1-flowered ; 

 flowers several, expanding in succession, and of very short duration. 

 A native of Guiana, where It was found by Aublet in moist meadows 

 (savannahs) at the foot of Mount Coutou, flowering in August; he 

 says it varies with blue flowers." (Curtis' s Botanical Magazine, pi. 

 1803.) 



