15. Ruellia humboldtiana (Nees) Lindau
Stemonacanthus humboldtianus Nees in DC. Prodr. 11: 206. 1847. Nees' de- scription is based on Humboldt's No. 709, collected at the Hacienda Mate- rolla, Aragua, Venezuela, and deposited in the Berlin Herbarium. A photograph of this specimen is in the U. S. National Herbarium, No. 18210. As a Greek-letter variety, Nees also cites here Linden's No. 1526, which he examined in the Hooker Herbarium. A photograph of an isotype in the Vienna Herbarium (U. S. National Herbarium, No. 32745) portrays an apparently glabrous plant with thin elliptical leaf blades, acute to obtusish at apex, and a small slender few-flowered thyrse. This Linden specimen might well represent an undescribed species.
Ruellia humboldtiana Lindau, Bull. Herb. Boiss. 3: 366. 1895. Based pre- sumably on Stemonacanthus humboldtianus Nees.
Suffrutescent herbs; stems obscurely quadrangular, glabrous or the nodes and tips puberulous; leaf blades ovate to oblong-ovate or oblong- elliptic, 4 to 15 cm. long, 2.5 to 8 cm. wide, acuminate (the tip itself obtuse), acute or rounded at base and decurrent on the petiole, un- dulate, both surfaces pilosulous, the hairs confined chiefly to costa and lateral veins, the lower surface minutely punctate; petioles 1 to 1.5 cm. long, puberulous; inflorescence a thrysoid panicle up to 10 cm. long, the branches each bearing from several to 20 or more flowers, the rachis conelike, minutely puberulous; bracts lanceolate, about as long as the calyx, often deciduous; calyx 9 to 12 mm. long, puberulous, punctate, the segments linear-lanceolate, 6 to 9 mm. long, 1 mm. wide at base; corollas pink, red, or bright carmine, salverform, minutely pubescent, up to 6 cm. long, the tube slightly curved and ventricose, 3 mm. broad at base, narrowed above ovary to 2 mm., thence gradually enlarged to about 12 mm. at mouth, the limb up to 5 cm. broad, the lobes oblong-ovate, up to 3 cm. long and 8 to 9 mm. wide near tip, emarginate; stamens exserted; capsules clavate, puberulous, gland- dotted, 1.5 cm. long, 5 mm. broad, rather bluntly pointed, narrowed to a slender solid base about 3 mm. long; seed brown, appressed- puberulous, about 5.5 mm. long and 5 mm. wide.
Roadsides, borders of damp woods or thickets, and in open places in general. Found usually between 100 and 820 meters altitude. Panama, Colombia, and Venezuela.
META: Camino de Restrepo to Cumaral, García-Barriga 5126 (US). Woods of the Rios Ocoa and Apiay, Llanos Orientales, Dugand & Jaramillo 3113 (US).

Villavicencio and vicinity, Bro. Apollinaire s. n. (US); Cuatrecasas 4536 (US); Haught 2458 (US); Killip 34361 (US); Pennell 1630 (NY); Pérez-Arbeláez 50 (US). Tres Esquinas Mill, Villavicencio, Helen Schiefer 757 (GH).
NORTE DE SANTANDER: Santa Librada, Quebrada de la China, a tributary of the Río Cubugón, region of Río Sarare, Cuatrecasas 12976 (US).
VAUPÉS: Calamar on the Río Unilla, Cuatrecasas 7317 (US). Caño Popore, valley of the Río Apaporis, Cuatrecasas 7075 (US).
VICHADA: Vicinity of San José de Ocune, Haught 2812 (US); Hermann 10942 (US).