2788 



Leaflets of Philippine Botany 



[Vol. VIII, Art. 115 



OLACACEAE 



Erythropalum grandifolium Elm. n. sp. 



Tree climber; stem 2 cm thick, very flexible, mostly 

 branched toward the top, crooked and occasionally nodulose; 

 wood soft, greenish, with a relatively large white pith, fresh 

 turnip odor, sweetish or tasteless; bark yellowish brown, 

 dotted with white lenticels; twigs slender, sparingly rebranch- 

 ed, the free ends drooping, glabrous. Leaves glabrous, diverse 

 in size but not in shape, submembranous or membranous, 

 of a shining rich green ahove, glaucescent beneath, horizon- 

 tal or descending, nearly flat, triangularly ovate, entire, 

 gradually tapering to the acute to acuminate apex, base 

 broadly truncate, alternatingly scattered, just barely peltate, 

 the larger blades 2 dm long by 1.5 dm wide toward the 

 base, often much smaller, occasionally with a tough tendril 

 from the axil; midvein bold beneath, yellowish green, with 

 I or 2 basal pairs, upper lateral 3 to 5 pairs, the basal 

 ones widely divergent and at least the upper or larger pair 

 repeatedly forked from below the middle along the lower 

 side, the lateral pairs also branched and coarsely anastomo- 

 sing, cross bars and reticulations few, plainly visible from 

 both sides; petiole from 3 to 10 cm long, green, glabrous, 

 slightly thickened and twisted at the base, attached 3 mm 

 above the basal margin of the blade. Infrutescenee axillary, 

 shorter than the foliage, upon slender green subpendulous 

 very sparingly branched stalks, bearing few fruits at their 

 ends; fruits ellipsoid, glaucous and red, nearly 2 cm long, 

 1.25 cm thick across the middle; their pedicels similar in 

 color, very slender, straight, gradually thickened toward the 

 distal end, 3 cm long, usually subtended at the base by 

 bracteoles. 



Type specimen number 12474, A. D. E. Elmer, Magal- 

 lanes (Mt. Giting-giting), Island of Sibuyan, May, 1910. 



Collected in fertile humus covered soil of dense woods 

 at 750 feet altitude. 



It seems to differ from the bulk of other Philippine 

 specimens by its membranous not coriaceous leaves which 



