Cassiinae pt 1 NY-Botanical_gardens_Vol. 35_1 - Copy.pdf - Antbase

244 MEMOIRS OF THE NEW YORK BOTANICAL GARDEN [VOL. 35
don II, 4: 346. 1895.—"In paludibus ad Carandajinho juxta Corumba
[, Mato Grosso] . . . Jan. [1892] (N. 919.)."—Holotypus, BM! = IPA
Neg. 1439 = M O Neg. 2067 = NY Neg. 158.
Cassia maritima Willenow ex Vogel, Syn. Gen. Cass. 23 & Linnaea 11: 668, descr. ampliat.
1837.—"WUUdenow] Hrb. 7928."—Holotypus, B (hb. Willd. 7928)1
Cassia mattogrossensis Malme, Arkiv f. Botanik 23A(13): 60. 1931.—"Santa Anna da Chapada
[=Chapada dos Guimaraes, n.-e. of Cuiaba, Mato Grosso], 18.V. 1903 [(fl,fr.), Regnell]
11:3380 . . ."—Holotypus, S! = NY Neg. 10476.
Cassia pilifera sensu Bentham, 1871, p. 536, magna ex parte, syn. incl.
Emelista pilifera sensu Britton & Rose, 1930, p. 243, basionym. exclus. & syn. 'C. cubensis';
Schery, 1951, p. 70.
Herbaceous from fibrous roots, sometimes appearing monocarpic, sometimes
suffruticose in age, normaUy much taller and more erect than var. pilifera, the
fohage thinner-textured, usually glaucescent beneath, usuaUy finely puberulent
on both faces, exceptionaUy glabrous; petioles 2-6 cm, mostly 0.5-1.2 mm diam;
distal hts 3-6(-7.5) x 1.5-3.4 cm, the tertiary and reticular venulation scarcely
or not visible above, faintly raised beneath; pedicels 1.5-2.6 cm; style of var.
pilifera; areole of seeds 2-2.5 x 0.3-0.6 mm.—Collections: 52.
Thickets, open or disturbed woodland, riverbanks and shores, southward along
gallery margins in cerrado, becoming locally weedy in hedges and pastures, near
sea-level up to 1400 m in Mexico, 1450 m in Peru, 1050 m on the Brazilian
Planalto, widespread but highly scattered through parts of tropical N. and S.
America: w. and s. Mexico (Sinaloa, near 25°N, to Oaxaca, Chiapas and Veracruz);
e. Cuba (Oriente); centr. Panama (Panama and Canal Zone); CordiUera
Oriental in n. Colombia (Santander); lowland Pacific Ecuador (Guayas); sources
of R. Huancabamba in s.-e. Piura and Cajamarca, Peru; remotely disjunct in the
Orinoco valley in Bolivar and Guarico, Venezuela and in lower Amazonian and
e. Brazil, from the delta region in Para s. to the headwaters Rio Araguaia in Mato
Grosso, of Rio Tocantins in Goias, the Sao Francisco-Doce watershed in s. Minas
Gerais, and e. Sao Paulo (Bocaina)—Fl. in Mexico IX-II, Cuba and Panama
IX-II, in n. S. America IV-V, in BrazU III-VII.—Acahualera (s. Mexico).
There can be little question that the Mexican, Cuban, Panamanian and Ama­
zonian plants referred by Bentham and by Britton & Rose to Cassia (or Emelista)
pilifera are distinct from genuine S. pilifera of tropical Argentina and adjoining
states, for they differ in habit, probably in duration of the root, in size of all
flower parts and, most importantly, in the shape ofthe seed-locules as determined
by the smaller size of the differently colored seeds. CoUectively they might well
be construed as an independent species, but the populations known from Maranhao,
Goias and Minas Gerais, whUe for the most part firmly linked to the
northern ones by their seeds and habit of growth, have larger flowers, the mea­
surements of aU organs independently overlapping, if only a Uttie, those of typical
S. pilifera; and a few of these are ambiguous as to growth-habit, taUer certainly
than var. pilifera of extreme southeastern BrazU and Argentina but described as
diffuse. A Une drawn along the Amazon-Parana watershed through the Federal
District effectively separates the ranges of the varieties but as they approach this
line, from either direction, the more obvious differences become muted. Unfor­
tunately we have as yet too few examples of seeds from the Planalto, which might
prove critical in the case of ambiguous specimens.
Unhke var. pilifera, the present variety is rather uniform in pubescence ofthe
foliage, the leaflets being almost always puberulent on both faces; but the ovary
may be either strigulose or pUose, its vesture varying independently of that of