Studies in the Boraginaceae

vel Hscendentes curvatas ad 0.5 mm. longas sparse gerente, intus supra medium minute strigoso, apice irregulariter 3-5-dentato; corolla alba 9-1 1 mm. longa, lobis 4-5 mm. longis ca. 2 mm. latis oblongis recurvatis; filamentis floris masculi 4-5 mm. longis basim versus villosis, eis floris feminei ad 1.5 mm. longis glabris antheras infertiles 0.3-0.5 mm. longas quam eis floris masculi ca. 1.5 mm. longis ad 4-plo minores gerentibus; stylo floris masculi ca. 1 mm. longo glabro, stylo floris feminei 6-7 mm. longo exserto; fructu albo ellipsoideo-ovoideo erecto elongato ad 1 cm. longo e calyce maturo explanato crateriformi ca. 6 mm. diametro oriente. Guatemala: Palamar, dept. Quezaltenango, 1140 m. alt., shrub or small tree up to 8 m. tall, in forest, fl. and fruit white, species dioecious, Oct. 12, 1934, Alexander F. Skutch 1425 (male, G) and 1426 (pistillate; TYPE, Gray Herb.). In gross habit C. Skutchii is most suggestive of C. diversijolia, but differs from that widely distributed plant in its more slender and loosely branched habit and green, thinner, nearly glabrous leaves. It is a montane plant of northwestern Guatemala. Its relative is a plant of the tierra caliente chiefly on the Atlantic side of Central America from Vera Cruz to Panama. In the field notes for his no. 1426, Skutch notes that it is a "pistillate fruiting individual of no. 1425; the species is dioecious." Dissection of his beautifully prepared material proves this to be true. The plant is dioecious by abortion. The male plants produce exserted stamens with fertile oblong anthers about 1.5 mm. long on filaments which are 4-5 mm. long and evidently hairy near their base. The ovary is 1-1.5 mm. long (at anthesis) and is rounded at the summit or bears a minute stub. There is no elongate branched style developed in the male flowers. The female flowers produce a well developed functional style which is evidently exserted from the corolla. This is slightly smaller than that on male plants. Its filaments are short (ca. 1.5 mm. long), glabrous and produce only reduced (0.3-0.5 mm. long) infertile anthers which are only a third to a quarter the size of those produced by the male flowers. The species is unquestionably dioecious.