Vismia cayennensis (Jacq.) Pers.
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Authority
Ewan, Joseph A. 1962. Synopsis of the South American species of Vismia (Guttiferae). Contr. U. S. Natl. Herb. 35: 293-377. pls. 1-5.
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Family
Clusiaceae
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Scientific Name
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Type
Type: Not designated by Jacquin, but undoubtedly from Cayenne, French Guiana (cf. Jacq. Stirp. Amer. 213. 1763).
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Description
Description - [No description provided.]
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Discussion
Vismia cayennensis and V. glabra are very close in nearly all morphological characters. The buds of V. glabra are hairy on the outside, and those of V. cayennensis glabrous. The most noticeable feature of V. glabra is that the panicle-branches are pubescent right up to the peg-like swelling upon which each pedicel articulates; sometimes this swelling is clothed with a minute fringe of hairs. V. cayennensis is without this pubescence. The leaves of V. glabra are often larger than those of its relative but this is not uniformly true. When Persoon established Vismia cayennensis he did not mention the earliest use of the epithet by Jacquin, but by following back through the literature by way of Willdenow, to whom Persoon refers, the ultimate name-bringing basionym is established. In Humboldt, Bonpland, and Kunth's "Nova Genera et Species Plantarum," V. acuminata (Lam.) Pers. is included on the basis of a specimen collected near Curichana, on the Rio Orinoco near the confluence of the Rio Meta. I have examined the Humboldt and Bonpland collection at Paris and find that it represents almost typical V. cayennensis. It does not have the long-acuminate leaf-tips of the form described as acuminata. The sheet bears the nomen nudum Hypericum eugeniaefolium Willd., indicated as a synonym by Sprengel.