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BOTANICAL EXPLORATION IN VENEZUELA - I 123
6-7 cm. longis, 4- vel 5-costatis,. tortis, dense breviterque pubescentibus
dein praeter apicera glabrescentibus.
Caulescent herb; stems slender, to about 10 cm. long, branched,
very leafy; leaves firm and tough, elongate lanceolate, somewhat
twisted or falcate-conduplicate in age, 2.5-4 cm. long, 3-7 mm. wide
at the mid-point, acute at the apex, many-striate, not fenestrate,
spreading, sheathing the stem at the base, densely white-villous with
tangled white hair when young on the upper surface, glabrescent in
age, obscurely subappressed-pilose on the lower surface (densely so
when very young, sparsely so in age); sheaths cylindric, rather loose,
about equaling the uppermost leaves, 1.5-2 cm. long, rather densely
short-pubescent with appressed antrorse hairs, less so in age, obliquely
split at the apex, the blade lanceolate, erect or the tip
spreading or recurved, 5-7 mm. long, more or less long-ciliate on the
margins; peduncles slender, 5-15 per plant, 6-7 cm. long, 4- or 5-
c estate, twisted, densely short-pubescent with subappressed antrorse
hairs, glabrescent in age except for the very tip; heads hemispheric,
6-7 mm. in diameter; involucral bractlets broadly triangular- ovate,
dark-brown, about 2 mm. long, about 1.5 mm. wide at the base, shortacuminate
at the apex, ciliolate-margined, otherwise glabrous; receptacle
densely long-villous; receptacular bractlets absent; staminate
florets: sepals 3, separate to the base, firm, erect, brownish,
darkest toward the apex, oblanceolate, about 1.4 mm. long and 0.5
mm. wide, acute, the margins more or less involute, densely bearded
at the apex on the back, otherwise glabrous, not glanduliferous;
petals 3i united into a hyaline infundibular tube about 1.7 mm. long,
glabrous, narrow-cylindric for about the lower half of its length,
abruptly ampliate to 0.8 mm. at the apex, its rim 3-apiculate; stamens
3, opposite the corolla-apiculations, inserted on the corolla-tube
about 0.4 mm. below its apex; filaments slender, about 0.4 mm. long,
glabrous, equaling the corolla-apiculations; anthers white, versatile,
oblong, about 0.3 mm. long, composed of 2 separate thecae, each
dehiscing by means of a longitudinal slit; style about 1.3 mm. long,
the upper 0.4 mm. trifid; ovary absent; pistillate florets few: sepals
3, lingulate, firm, erect, about 1.2 mm. long, rather uniformly about
0.6 mm. wide throughout, obtuse at the apex, light-brown toward the
apex and in a median band to the base, hyaline-margined toward the
base, more or less densely long-villous on the back and shortbearded
at the apex, or only densely bearded, not glanduliferous;
petals 3, separate almost to the base, subhyaline, erect, ellipticoblong,
about 13 mm. long and 0.4 mm. wide, subacute at apex,
glabrous on the back, very densely long-villous on the inner surface
with white hairs surpassing the petals in length, not bearded, not
glanduliferous; style about 0.6 mm. long, glabrous, terminated by 3
clavate style -appendages and 3 bifid stigmas, all 0.4-0.5 mm. long;
ovary small, subglobose, about 0.4 mm. long and wide, glabrous,
3-celled.
Type in herb. New York Botanical Garden, collected in dense