MULFORD EXPLORATION OF THE AMAZON VALLEY 



363 



petiole and ahruptly aoniniiiate and aente snnnnit, obscvirely sin- 

 uate-dentate, tliick and drying brown, the midrib lightly grooved 

 above, prominent beneath, the slender secondaries about 10 on 

 each side, strongly falcate-ascending. Flowers crowded at the 

 ends of the branchlets, their bracts and bractlets simulating an 

 involucre. Bracts about 2 cm. long, ovate, long-acuminate, the 

 bractlets similar but terminating in attenuate acuminations, the 

 calyx-lobes similar, all whitish-hirsute. Corolla-tube nearly 1 

 cm. long, 3 mm. broad, constricted at the summit. Throat cam- 

 panulate, nearly 3 cm. long, 1.5 cm. broad at the sunmiit, the 

 lobes subequal, 1.5 cm. long, 1 cm. broad. Stamens didynamous, 

 the longer pair reaching nearly to the base of the corolla-lobes, 

 the others a little shorter, the anthers 3 nun. long, 2 mm. broad, 

 sagittate. 



Huachi, 1,800 feet, 0. E. WJiite, August 13, 1921 (no. 437). 

 "A tree, to 15 feet high, in forest, the flowers lilac-purple." 



Also collected by H. H. Rusby farther up the Bopi and re- 

 garded as the most l)eautiful flowering shrub seen on this 

 journey. 



Ruellia hypericifolia 



Finely and very shortly strigose, the lower leaf-surfaces 

 somewhat tomentellate. Stems slender, erect or ascending, 

 branched, leafy to the summit, the branches sharply c^uadrangu- 

 lar. Leaves 2 to 5 cm. long, 5 to 15 mm. wide, lanceolate or vary- 

 ing to oblanceolate, obtusish with acuminate subsessile base, 

 entire, grayish-green, or slightly brownish beneath, where the 

 thick midrib and 5 or G pairs of crooked strongly ascending sec- 

 ondaries are prominent. Plowers solitary in the axils, subses- 

 sile, the calyx tube very short, the slightly unequal lobes nar- 

 rowly lanceolate and attenuate at the summit, subcarinate at the 

 base, the largest to 12 mm. Corolla lilac, aliout 3 cm. long, the 

 lower half of the tube narrowly cylindric, mostly straight, the 

 upper half campanulate, the large, broadty recurved lobes widely 

 spreading or recurved. Filaments attached at the summit of 

 the cylindric portion of the tube, the longer stamens nearly as 

 long as the corolla, the shorter ones only about half as long. 

 Anthers large, lanceolate, lightly cordate. Style 2.5 cm. long, 

 very slender. Capsule obovoid, light-brown, nearly equaling 

 the calyx-lobes. 



Near Eeyes, 1,000 feet, October 26, 1921 {no. 1322). 



