JOURNAL
OF THE
WASHINGTON ACADEMY OF SCIENCES
Vol. VI MARCH 19, 1916 No. 6
BOTANY.—A remarkable new Eysenhardtia from the west coast
1
of Mexico. William E. Safford, Bureau of Plant Industry.
In a recent paper on Eysenhardtia 2polystachya the author called
attention to the variability of that species and to the consequent
difficulty in delimiting the species included in the group to which
it belongs. Of those already described Eysenhardtia orthocarpa
S. Wats, and E. adenostylis Baill. are held by some authorities
to be specifically identical with E. polystachya (Orteg.) Sarg., and
E. amorphoides H.B.K. is undoubtedly a synonym of it. So
distinct from this group and from Eysenhardtia spmosaEngelm.
and its allies is the plant I am about to describe, that it ought
to be placed in a section apart from them. Its ten stamens are
monadelphous instead of diadelphous, the style is not genicu-
late or hooked, the calyx is deeply instead of shallowly and
broadly lobed, and it differs conspicuously from hitherto de-
scribed species of Eysenhardtia in its spreading, compound,
paniculate inflorescence and its very large retuse leaflets.
A critical study of the entire genus is greatly to be desired.
Eysenhardtia Olivana Safford, sp. nov.
A tree, 8 to 10 meters high, glandular-punctate throughout; heart-
wood dense and blackish; branches slender and spreading. Leaves
alternate, usually odd-pinnate (only those of flowering branches ob-
served); rachis 10 to 11 cm. long, grooved above; leaflets 7 or 8 pairs,
1 Published with the permission of the Secretary of Agriculture.
2 Eysenhardtia polystachya, the soiirce of the true lignum nephriticum mexi-
canum. Journ. Wash. Acad. Sci. 5: 503-517. 1915.
133
134 safford: a remarkable eysenhardtia
subopposite, stalked, oval or oblong-elliptical, finely granular-dotted,
retuse at apex, rounded at base, the largest (near the middle of the
rachis) 4 cm. long, 1.6 cm. broad, glabrous above, sparsely puberulent
beneath (as seen under the lens) petiolules about 4 mm.; long, densely
glandular-tuberculate (in type specimen without stipels). Flowers
small (about 8 mm. long), white, turning yellow in drying, crowded in
spicate racemes, these forming the ultimate divisions of a spreading
terminal compound panicle; branches of inflorescence finely cinereous-
tomentose and glandular-punctate; pedicels very short and slender (1
mm. long), subtended by a minute acute sessile lanceolate deciduous
bracteole. Calyx funnel-shaped, deeply divided into 5 nearly equal
linear-oblong lobes (rounded at the tips), clothed on the outside with
minute cinereous hairs and irregularly dotted with resinous globules.
Corolla subpapilionaceous, composed of 5 distinct unguiculate petals,
the standard (vexillum) twice as broad as the wings and keel petals,
emarginate or retuse at the apex, carinate; wings and keel petals nearly
similar, equalling the standard in length. Stamens 10, graduated in
length, united into a cleft tube, the upper (vexillar) the shortest, the
lower slightly exceeding the style; anthers similar, the pollen cells
united by a relatively broad connective. Ovary nearly sessile, 1-ovuled,
clothed with minute hairs; style terete, slender, not hooked at the tip,
but with a slightly broader terminal stigma. Legume not observed.
Type in the United States National Herbarium, No. 385587, col-
lected at La Correa, State of Guerrero, Mexico, at an altitude of 150
meters, October
"
1, 1898, by E. Langlasse (No. 395). Arbre 8-10 m.,
bois pr£cieux noiratre; fleurs blanches. Nom indigene, Palo de arco
[bowwood]."
This species is named in honor of the late Dr. Leonardo Oliva, Pro-
fessor of Pharmacology in the University of Guadalajara, who first
indicated the true botanical classification of the Mexican lignum
nephriticum and identified Eysenhardtia amorphoides H.B.K. with
Viborquia polystachya Ortega.
The accompanying figure is from a drawing of the type by Mrs. R.
E. Gamble.
Explanation of Fig. 1.
Type specimen of Eysenhardtia Olivana Safford, showing the branching inflor-
escence, leaves, a flower, and the essential parts: a, flower with one petal
removed, to show the stamens and pistil; b, resinous globule, detached from the
calyx; c, cleft staminal tube with stamens, some of them deprived of their an-
thers; d, carpel, showing pilose ovary and style with terminal stigma; e, ver-
tical section of ovary, showing solitary ovule;/, vexillar petal (standard); g, a
wing petal; h, one of the keel petals. Leaves and inflorescence natural size;
a, c, d, f, g, h, scale 5; b, e, scale 6.
Fig. 1. Type specimen of Eysenhardtia Olivana Safford.
135