LEAFLETS ON PHILIPPINE BOTANY 
EDITED BY A. D. E. ELMER, A. M. 
Nol 1. Manila, P. L, April 15, I9O6. Art. 4. 
PANDANS OF EAST LEYTE 
BY 
A.D. E. ELMER. 
ene —— 
Pandanus radicans Blco. Fl. Filip. 1; 780, 1837: ed. 
2; 537, 1845. Miq. Fl. Ind. Bat. 3; 166, 1859. F. Vil. Nov. 
App. 285; 1880-3. Warb. in Engler Pplanzenr. 3 Heft, IV. 
9; 85, 1900. Merr. Govt. Lab. Publ. 17; 8, 1904: Govt. Lab. 
Pub. 27; 89, 1905. It is quite impossible to identify our 
specimen from the original diagnosis, and consequently most 
reliable authors considered it as an imperfectly known species. 
However, all through east Leyte the Visayans know this form 
of pandan as Olafigo which is the name Blanco gives. 
I therefore restore P. radicans Blco. with the additional des- 
cription made from fresh material. 
This species is usually found growing in small groups of 
three to seven trees, in alluvial overflows along rivers and in 
marshes of caladium and other subaquatic plants. The straight 
erect trunks are anchored to the soil by prop roots and are about 
8 m. high and 2 dm. in diameter; the old bark is smooth 
and shining, though in the younger plants it is conspicuously 
ring like and beset with stout conical spines; branches few, 
thick, very short. Leaves crowded upon the ends of the 
rigid branches, usually in four spirally twisted rows (an 
arrangement to secure the greatest amount of sunlight), 
