111.  Cassia vauthieri Bentham in Martius, Fl. Bras. 15 (2): I38. I870. — "Habitat in Serro Frio prov. Minas Geraes: Vauthier n.148." — Holotypus G! isotypi, F (fragm ex G) + F Neg. 28022, GH, P = NY Neg. 6953. - Bentham, 1871, p. 561.

Shrubs or subshrubs of low stature ("petit arbuste" fide Glaziou) with virgately ascending or erect, densely amply leafy, simple or distally few-branched stems, glabrous except for microscopically ciliolate stipules, lf-margins, and bracts, not or not obviously glutinous but the stems lustrous and remotely low-verruculose or resin-dotted, the foilage subconcolorously glaucescent, often purplish-mottled, the inflorescence terminal, densely and shortly corymbose-paniculate, exserted.

Stipules erect, subulate, firm, livid, 1-1.5 mm, early deciduous.

Lvs subhorizontally spreading, sessile, 1.5-4 cm, somewhat decrescent distally; pulvinus 1-1.5 mm, little dilated, wrinkled lengthwise when dry; lf-stalk reduced to the short firm seta arising from between the lfts; lfts (of all but a few depauperate bifoliolate lvs) 2 pairs, horizontally spreading, face upward, on closely contiguous, dilated, corneous pulvinule — 1mm diam, the slightly larger distal pair tilted forward from point of attachment, the proximal pair divaricate from it, on the distal side overlapping the larger pair and on the proximal side am- plexicaul, the blades suborbicular, broadly obovate-cuneate, ovate, or rhombic-elliptic, at apex mostly rounded but either abruptly acuminate or merely mucronate by the excurrent midrib, (1.2-) 1.5-4.5 x (0.8-) 1 -3 cm, the larger pair at base subsymmetrically broadly cuneate, the smaller pair more oblique, their proximal margins often concave, the whole margin of all lfts corneous, plane, entire, probably red when fresh, the blades stiffly chartaceous subconcolorous, on both sides dull olivaceous subglaucescent, tinged or mottled with purple, the straight subcentric midrib and 5-8(-9) pairs of major secondary veins elevated on both sides but more sharply defined beneath, the connecting tertiary venules above immersed, beneath faintly elevated but irregular.

Inflorescence simply racemose or paniculate, the axis of each raceme closely ±15-30-fld, the several fls simultaneously expanded elevated to or beyond level of succeeding buds; bracts triangular-subulate, 0.6-1 mm, caducous long before anthesis; pedicels flexuously ascending, 11-18 mm, bracteolate 0.5-3 mm below calyx; bracteoles resembling bracts, hardly smaller, caducous; buds plumply ovoid, very obtuse, glabrous, when dry blackish striped lengthwise by the pallid membranous margins of the outer sepals; sepals oblong-elliptic obtuse, when fresh red, firm within the pallid margin, 6.5-8 x 2.8-4 mm; petals orange or (Glaziou) yellow, not widely expanded, four oblanceolate or obovate-cuneate, I0-I4.5 x 5-6.5 mm, the adaxial pair larger, the fifth shortest, semi-obovate coiled; ovary glabrous; ovules 4-5.

Pod (immature) oblong, ±2 x 0.8 cm, the valves atropurpureous, probably subglutinous when fresh. — Collections: 4. — Plate 16.

Treeless rocky campo above 1000 m, known only from s.-centr. S. do Espinhaco (Serro Frio; Sa. do Cipo). - Fl. III-VIII.

A species still poorly known, but notable for the reduction of the primordial pinnate leaf to two pairs of lfts sessile, one immediately above the other without intervening lf-stalk, on a cauline node, the only member of sect. Absus so characterized. The two pairs of leaflets both spread subhorizontally, face upward, from the cauline axis, but are somewhat dimorphic in shape and attitude: the two distal leaflets larger and subsymmetrical at base, tilted outward from the stem, the two proximal ones a little shorter, diametrically opposed and therefore embracing the stem edgewise by their conformably concave proximal margins. Bentham (1871, 1.c.) placed C. vauthieri in ser. Baseophyllum next to C. blanchetu, having misinterpreted as glandulae majusculae crassae depressae'' the corneous dilated pulvinules of the distal pair of leaflets. Despite a superficial resemblance in shape and coloring of the leaflets to C. blanchetu, which has a genuine saucer-chaped gland situated between its one pair of sessile blades, C. vauthieri is much closer akin to C. ochnacea var. latifolia. This it resembles in the texture of the foliage and in the blunt red scarious-margined sepals, although instantly distinguished from C. ochnacea and all its close allies by the suppression of leafstalk.