254 Philippine Journal of Science 1919 



ASCLEPIADACEAE 



CRYPTOLEPIS R. Brown 



\0* CRYPTOLEPIS SINENSIS (Lour.) comb. nov. 



Pergularia sinensis Lour. Fl. Cochinch. (1790) 169. 



Emericia sinensis Roem. & Schultes Syst. 4 (1819) 402. 



Pergularia chinensis Spreng. Syst. 1 (1825) 836. 



Vallaris sinensis G. Don Gen. Syst. 4 (1838) 79. 



Cryptolepis elegans Wall. Cat. (1829) No. 1639, notnen nudum, G. 



Don Gen. Syst. 4 (1838) 82. 

 Aganosma edithiae Hance in Ann. Sci. Nat. Bot. V 5 (1866) 227. 



Loureiro's material was from China, presumably from the 

 vicinity" of Canton, and has long been considered a species of 

 doubtful status. All the synonyms cited above, except the last 

 two, are based on Loureiro's binomial. The description applies 

 closely to the species currently known as Cryptolepis elegans 

 Wall., a species not uncommon in Kwangtung Province and 

 represented by the following specimens: Merrill 10806, Levine 

 356, 1850, 3201. Loureiro described the seeds as naked, perhaps 

 because he saw only those from which the coma had fallen, or 

 perhaps because he really saw no seeds. I am convinced, how- 

 ever, that the species as here interpreted is the one Loureiro 

 intended. 



APOCYNACEAE 



. ALYXIA Banks 



^ ALYXIA LEVIN El sp. nov. 



Frutex scandens, glaber, ramis ramulisque tenuibus, olivaceis ; 

 foliis oppositis et ternatis, junioribus membranaceis, vetustiori- 

 bus chartaceis ad subcoriaceis, ellipticis ad oblongis, usque ad 

 8 cm longis, utrinque subaequaliter angustatis, obtuse acuminatis ; 

 infiorescentiis axillaribus brevibus, breviter pedunculatis, ut vi- 

 detur paucifloris ; fructibus junioribus ellipsoideis, circiter 9 mm 

 longis. 



A scandent glabrous shrub, the branches and branchlets slen- 

 der, the internodes up to 25 cm in length, branchlets 1.5 mm 

 in diameter or less, somewhat angled or striate, the older 

 branches terete, smooth, somewhat reddish brown. Leaves op- 

 posite and in whorls of three, elliptic to oblong, 5 to 8 cm long, 

 2 to 3 cm wide, the younger ones membranaceous, the older ones 

 chartaceous to subcoriaceous, olivaceous, shining, subequally 

 narrowed to the acute or somewhat acuminate base and to the 

 bluntly acuminate apex, the nerves often obsolete, never promi- 

 nent; petioles 4 to 7 mm long. Inflorescences axillary, solitary, 

 short, apparently very few-flowered, their peduncles 5 mm long 



