S32       SPECIES  OF  IPOMOEA  AFFORDING  TAMPICO  JALAP. 
tember  showed  signs  of  flowering.  It  was  then  taken  up  and 
replaced  in  the  greenhouse,  where  it  blossomed  freely  in  October 
last,  but  did  not  mature  any  seeds.  Accompanying  the  tuber- 
cules,  but  of  course  in  a  separate  box,  my  correspondent  sent 
some  pressed  and  dried  specimens  from  Guanajuato,  which  cor- 
respond perfectly  with  the  growing  plant. 
Having  ascertained,  from  the  study  of  these  materials,  that 
the  plant  belonged  to  the  genus  Ipomoea,  I  endeavored  to  identify 
it  with  some  species  described  in  the  "  Prodromus  "  of  De  Can- 
dolle,  or  in  the  subsequently  published  "  Annales  "  of  Walpers, 
but  without  success.  Neither  was  I  able  to  find  any  correspond- 
ing specimen  in  the  herbaria  of  the  British  Museum  or  of  the 
Royal  Gardens  of  Kew.  In  the  Paris  Museum  there  is  a  plant, 
collected  by  Galeotti  on  the  lofty  Cordillera  near  Oaxaca,  which, 
so  far  as  scanty  specimens  enables  me  to  judge,  accords  pre- 
cisely with  that  received  from  Mr.  Finck.  It  bears  a  number 
which  is  not  mentioned  in  the  enumeration,  by  Martens,  of  Ga- 
leotti's  Convolvulacece  (contained  in  the  "  Bulletin  de  I'Acad^- 
mie  Royale  de  Bruxelles  "*) ;  and  I  therefore  conclude  that  it 
is  unnamed.  Under  these  circumstances,  I  have  drawn  up  the 
following  diagnosis  and  description  of  the  plant,  which  I  propose 
to  call  Ipomcea  simulans.  The  specific  name  is  chosen  in  allusion 
to  the  remarkable  similarity  which  the  plant  bears  in  foliage  and 
habit  to  the  true  jalap  [Ipomoea  Purga^  Hayne),  not  to  mention 
the  resemblance  of  its  tubercules.  The  funnel-shaped  corolla 
and  pendent  flower-buds  of  the  Tampico  jalap-plant  are  quite 
unlike  the  corresponding  parts  of  /  Purga^  and  furnish  a  ready 
means  of  distinguishing  the  two  species  : — 
Ipomcea  simulans,  sp.  nov.  Radice  tuberosa,  caule  volubili  herbaceo 
glabro,  foliis  ovatis,  acuminatis,  cordatis  v.  sagittatis,  indivisis,  pedun- 
culis  unilloris  solitariis,  sepalis  parvis. 
Hob.  in  Andibus  Mexicanis  Sierra  Gorda  dictis,  prov.  Guanajuato 
(fide  cl.  FincJi) ;  in  regione  frigida  ad  ped.  8000  prope  Oaxaca  {H. 
Galeotti,  no.  1369  !). 
Radix  napiformis  v.  subglobosa  v.  elongata,  carnosa,  2-3  poll,  longa, 
basi  fibrillosa.  Caules  herbacei,  graciles.  Folia  glaberrima,  2-4- 
pollicaria,  1-2  poll,  lata,  lobis  baseos  acutis  v.  rotundatis  v.  subtrun- 
catis,  petiolo  tenui,  l:|-2^  pollicari.  PeduncuH  axillares,  petiolum 
subaequantes,  penduli,  uniflori  v.iiiplanta  vegetiore  novelli  alabrastra 
^  Tome  xii.  pt.  2  (1845),  p.  257. 
