THE PHILIPPINE JOURNAL OF SCIENCE, C. BOTANY. 
VoL. X, No. 3, May, 1915. 
NEW SPECIES OF SCHEFFLERA 
By E. D. MERRILL ’* 
(From the Botanical Section of the Biological Laboratory, 
Bureau of Science, Manila, P. I.) 
The increase in the number of known species of this genus in 
the Philippines has been rather remarkable. Up to the close of 
_ the past century but three species were definitely known from 
the Archipelago. As in a number of our large genera of phane- 
rogams most of the species of Schefflera are endemic, and most 
of them are of very local occurrence in the Philippines, few, such 
as Schefflera odorata and S. insularum being of general distribu- 
tion in the Archipelago. The present paper consists of the de- 
scriptions of twelve presumably new species of Scheffiera, bring- 
ing the total number of Philippine forms up to approximately 
fifty-five, of which five are in the section Cephaloschefflera, which 
is perhaps entirely worthy of generic rank, the remainder belong- 
ing in the section Euschefflera, Heptapleurum. 
SCHEFFLERA CRASSISSIMA sp. nov. § Cephaloschefflera. 
Arbor vel frutex ut videtur epiphyticus, glaber; foliis palma- 
tim §8-foliolatis, foliolis crassissime coriaceis, ellipticis vel 
oblongo-ellipticis, nitidis, in siccitate brunneis, integris, usque 
ad 15 cm longis, breviter abrupte acuminatis, basi late rotun- 
datis vel subcordatis, nervis utrinque circiter 10, reticulis pri- 
mariis laxis, secundariis obsoletis; petiolo crasso, circiter 25 em 
longo; racemis crassis, 30 ad 40 em longis, capitulis sub fructu 
ellipsoideis, 1.5 cm longis, densis, fructibus 5-locellatis. 
A shrub or tree, quite glabrous (flowers unknown), apparently 
epiphytic. Petioles stout, cylindric, dark-brown when dry, about 
1 cm in diameter and 25 cm long. Leaflets 8, elliptic to oblong- 
elliptic, very thickly coriaceous, brownish and shining when 
dry, of about the same color on both surfaces, 12 to 15 cm long, 
about 7 cm wide, entire, margins revolute, apex very shortly 
and abruptly acuminate, base broadly rounded to subcordate; 
lateral nerves about 10 on each side of the midrib, slender, anas- 
* Associate professor of botany, University of the Philippines. 
195 
