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ON A NEW SPECIES OF OREOPANAX. 351
I only noticed on rivulets one species, which goes there by the names
of " Manu de Leon" and " Pata de Danta," in allusion to the shape
of the leaves, which are sufficiently large to be useful for wrapping up
cheese, soap, etc. It is about 30 feet high, and has palmate leaves,
tomentose-pubescent on both sides, and with pinnatifid lobes. The
flowers are whitish. It may possibly be O. Guatemalense, of which I
have not yet had an opportunity of seeing an authentic specimen, and
I will therefore leave it in abeyance. But a second species is very
plentiful about the Javali Mine, in Chontales. It is so much like O.
capitata, that at first I mistook it for that widely diffused species, until
I remembered that 0. capitata is an erect tree, w^hilst this species is an
epiphyte, which, like some of the Ficus of the country, closely embraces
a tree by its stout roots, and gradually kills its host both by its weight
and by stifling it. It was from a tree that had thus been killed I
obtained fresh specimens of this species, which I named :
0. destructor (sp. n.), Seem. ; epiphytum ; petiolis elongatis (3-6
unc. long.), foliis oblongis v. obovato-oblongis acuminatis, basi cuueatis,
apice abrupte acuminatis, integerrimis, venis primariis 3, 2 lateralibus
angulum acutum formantibus, utrinque glabris, supra lucidis ;
racemoso-paniculatis ;
—
floribus
pedunculis pedicellisque pubescente-tomentosis ;
drupis obovatis obtusis (nigris). — Nomen vernaculum Chontalense
" Tempisque moutanero" (v. v. sp.).
Branches stoutish, terete. Leaves alternate, the two lateral veins
extending beyond the middle of the blade. Leaves perfectly glabrous
in fruiting specimen, and on upper surface shining like those of Ivy.
Inflorescence terminal, the fruiting heads composed of 3-5 drupes,
the latter crownied by several styles. Perfect flowering specimens I
have not seen.
The natives informed me that about Leon (Nicaragua) thereds a
Tempisque, which however is a tree, used in processions on Palm Sun-
day, the frait of which is eaten. It may possibly be 0. capitata, which
if memoiy serve uie right, I have noticed about that city.
Oreopanax Xalapense, Dene, et Planch., has lately been named Mo-
nopanax Ghiesbreghti, Kegel, Gartenflora, 1869, p. 35, t. 606 ; the
author having mistaken an abortive ovary of a male flower, with its
consolidated styles, for a fertile ovary of a hermaphrodite flower, thus
has failed to recognize the genus Oreopanax.