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MEMOIRS OF THE NEW YORK BOTANICAL GARDEN 



| VOL. 10 



Type. Crescit in sylvis Orinocensibus prope San Fernando de Atabapo, 

 Amazonas, Venezuela, Humboldt & Bonpland [904] (holotype, fr. P). 



Vernacular Names. Louro inamuy (Ducke) ; Louro mamory (Froes) ; Sassa- 

 fras (Ducke) ; Sasafras (Williams). 



Distribution. Large tree along periodically flooded river banks of the AmazoD 

 Basin, chiefly the Rio Orinoco, Rio Negro and their tributaries. BRAZIL. Ama- 

 zonas: Fonte Boa, Froes 20667 (fr. NY) ; Cucuhy, ad ripas inundatas Rio Negro, 

 Ducke 38 (fl. NY), Parana do Limao, Rio Negro inferior, 23963 (fr. US). VEN- 

 EZUELA. Amazonas: occasional along Rio Casiquiare just below Capihuara, 

 Wurdack & Adderley 4.36.39 (fl. NY) ; Rio Orinoco between mouth of Rio Atabapo 

 and Cafio Masagua, 10 km upstream, Level 92 (fl. NY) ; en selva rebalsera, Boca 

 del Cano Tamatama, Orinoco, Williams 15860 (fr. A, F, US); Bolivar: Tem- 

 blador, Medio Caura, Williams 11686 (fr. F, US). COLOMBIA. Comisaria del 

 Vaupes: riberas del Rio Papunaua, cinco kilometros arriba de su desembocadura 

 en el Inirida, Fernandez 2325 (fr. US), riberas del Rio Inirida, alrededores del 

 sitio llamado "Morichal," cerca de la boca del Rio Papunaua, 2034 (fr. US). 



The leaves of the cited specimens are usually thinly membranaceous, some- 

 times in the fruiting stage becoming subcoriaceous ; the venation is more or less 

 inconspicuous except for the midrib, which is generally brownish in contrast to 

 the pale green of the blade in the dried state. The leaves, however, vary in size 

 and shape, the smaller being more broadly elliptic than the narrowly elliptic or 

 sublanceolate-elliptic larger ones. 



Ducke 's emended description of Barbosa Rodriguez' species includes an 

 illustration showing flowers and a fruit obviously copied from the plate of the 

 original publication. 



The notable lack of flowering material in comparison with fruiting collec- 

 tions — a universal complaint of students of the Lauraceae — is mentioned by 

 Ducke as being due to the great height of trees in the area of his study and to 

 the fact that the flowering season coincides with the period of greatest inunda- 

 tion along the rivers. Particularly interesting is the presence in the trunks of 

 older trees of "vegetable gas," an "excessively clear, transparent, aqueous, highly 

 aromatic oil with an odor of turpentine." This is used locally, according to col- 

 lectors, for illumination and for medicine as well. 



The much-discussed "N. cymbarum," known only from fruiting specimens 

 collected originally at San Fernando de Atabapo, is placed here at this time 

 without hesitation, though future collections of flowering material from the 

 region jnay reveal differences not now noted. The "cymbarum" fruits are not 

 to be distinguished from that illustrated by Barbosa Rodriguez, and the notes 

 of several subsequent collectors also record the presence of oil with a turpentine- 

 like odor. The apparent double margin of the cupule in all of the specimens cited 

 above, including the fruits collected by Ducke after the publication of the species, 

 although an outstanding characteristic of the genus Licaria, is found in several 

 species that belong indisputably to Ocotea. As far as is known at present, this 

 is its only recorded occurrence in Nectandra. 



Near this species, if indeed not a variation of it, is Steyermark 56739 (fl. F), 

 collected in Merida, Venezuela, along the Rio Onia near Bolero, north of Mesa 

 Bolivar. The leaves are definitely coriaceous, but the flower-structure is identical 

 with that of the Amazon plants ; the collector notes ' ' strong turpentine-smelling 

 heart wood from which oil is extracted for medicine. ' ' 



The Fernandez numbers cited more nearly approach Mez' interpretation of 

 the species, as indicated by his inclusion of Martius' collection from "Alto 



