Lobelia harrisii Urb.

Pratia harrisii (Urban) McVaugh, comb. nov
Lobelia Harrisii Urban, Symb. Ant. 5: 520. 1908.
Stem erect or decumbent, sufTrutescent, simple or with 2-3 branches from the base, where 3-4 nmi. in diameter and covered with the corky scars of former leaves, glabrous, often roughened below, 12-45 cm. high; cauline leaves clustered about the upper 3-12 cm., borne 8-18 at a time, spreading, thin and papery, glabrous, 4-5.5 cm. wide (including spines), 12-15 cm. long, about 2.5-5 times as long as wide, the blades elliptic to oblanceolate, acute at tip, the base shortly attenuate to a fimbriate-margined petiole 5 mm. long or less, the margins coarsely but regularly fimbriate-dentate, the principal teeth 0.6-1.6 cm. apart, deltoid, 2-6 mm. high, produced into setaceous spines 3-15 mm. long, these teeth with 1-2 spines on each side and with 1-5 smaller setaceous-spiny teeth between each of the principal ones; flowers 3-7 in the axils of the reduced upper leaves, the axis of the inflorescence usually 1-2 cm. long, determinate as a result of the degeneration of the growing point (always?); pedicels slender, more or less upright, 10-15 mm. long, glabrous, each with a pair of subopposite linear-filiform bracteoles 1-3 mm. long, 2-5 mm. above the base; flower-bracts leafy, about 0.4 cm. wide by 2 cm. long or slightly larger; flower inverted (?), 28-34 mm. long, including hypanthium; corolla 28 mm. long (Harris 10665), yellow or orange-yellow (according to Harris), glabrous, tlie lobes ciliate at tip, the tube fenestrate (always?), arcuate, the two lobes next the dorsal fissure acute, about 2.5 mm. broad by 4.5 mm. long, the other three about 3 mm. wide, almost as long, fused at tip (?); filament-tube 14-17 mm. long, somewhat exserted, pubescent; anther-tube 3.5-4.0 mm. long, the 2 smaller anthers densely white-tufted at tip (tuft 0.8 mm. long), the 3 larger densely very short-tufted; h>-panthium in anthesis hemispheric, glabrous, reddish, in fruit shortcampanulate, forming a cup 1-2 mm. high above the ovary ; fruit about 4.5 mm. across, 3-5 mm. high; calyx-lobes linear-subulate to lanceolate or narrowly deltoid, 1-3.5 mm. wide by 8-1 1 mm. long, pectinately toothed, prickly-ciUate on the teeth and near the tip; seeds nearly globular, smooth, shining, light brown, pitted, about 0.8 mm. long.
Type LOC.^Liri-: Troy, Jamaica, at an elevation of 760 m., Harris 8695 (isotype, NY!). Distribution: Western Jamaica, in limestone regions at elevations of 600—760 m.