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396 MERRILL AND MERRITT. 
MERRITTIA Merrill gen. nov. 
Capitula heterogama, disciformia, androgyna, floribus in ambitu @, 
fertilibus, pluriseriatis, numerosis, disci ¢ paucis. Involucrum sub- | 
campanulatum, bracteis pluriseriatis, angustis, exterioribus gradatim 
minoribus. Receptaculum planum, dense pilosum. Corollae @¢ _ fili- 
formes, minute 3-dentatae, stylis suis breviores; ¢ regulares, tubulosae, 
limbo apice parum ampliato 5-dentato. Antherae basi sagittatae, auri- 
culis caudato-acuminatis, apice appendiculatae. Styli fl. 9  exserti, 
ramis linearibus; styli fl. ¢ vix exserti, subintegri, apice minutissime 
divisi. Achenia parva, plus minus compressa, obscure striata. Pappi 
setae tenues, uniseriatae, liberae, scaberulae. Herba erecta, perennis, 
plus minus pubescens. Folia alterna, ampla, irregulariter lyrato-lobata, 
dentata, sessilia vel subsessilia. Capitula mediocria, in paniculis ter- 
minalibus oblongis disposita. Achenia pilosa. 
Merrittia benguetensis (Elm.) Merrill contb. nov. 
Senecio benguetensis Elm. Leafl. Philip. Bot. 1 (1906) 152. 
In the mossy forest above an altitude of 2,250 m, 0. M. Z. 16113, Merrill 6586. 
Otherwise represented by the following specimens, all from Benguet Province, 
Luzon: Mount Tonglon (Santo Tomis) Elmer 6247 (type); Pauai, Merrill 4755; 
Balangabang, Bur. Sci. 5896 Ramos; without definite locality, Loher 3636 (in 
herb. Kew.). ; 
The new genus here proposed I refer with considerable confidence to the tribe 
Inuleae, placing it next to Blumea in the Inuleae-Plucheinae as defined by Hoff- 
mann in Engler & Prantl’s “Natiirlichen Pflanzenfamilien.” To me the plant 
has much the aspect of some species of Bluwmea, while in floral structure it 
approximates that of Blumea and allied genera. It differs from Blumea and 
other genera in the Inuleae-Plucheinae especially in its rather densely pilose 
receptacles, a character quite at variance with the genera to which Merrittia seems 
otherwise to be allied. 
J. R. Drummond, Esq., who kindly assisted me in the identification of some 
of the Philippine Compositae in the Kew herbarium, examined a part of the 
material above cited, and the following is quoted from his report on Senecio 
benguetensis Elm. 
“This plant is remote from all the typical forms of the genus, to which Mr. 
Elmer has referred it, by the involucral structure; it is true that certain species 
now included under Senecio have pluriseriate and imbricating involucral bracts, 
but assuming that those species should remain in their present position, which 
seems to be far from certain, the characters of the stigma in the ¢ florets of the 
Luzon plant would exclude it from the tribe of Senecionideae as defined in the 
Genera Plantarum.” 
Mr. Drummond has suggested that the plant should be referred to the subtribe 
Baccharideae of the Asteroideae, but I consider that the character of the tailed 
anthers excludes it from that tribe. 
The ¢g flowers (disk-flowers) vary in number from 3 to 9, the corolla-teeth 
frequently being nearly 1.5 mm in length. The styles are entire or minutely, cleft 
at the apex, the arms being less than 0.5 mm in length. The style-arms of the 
Q flowers are papillate and about 1.5 mm in length. The involucral-scales are 
several-seriate, the outer ones being from 1 to 1.5 mm long, the inner gradually 
longer, the innermost about 7 mm long and 1 mm wide, 
pS ae 
