2840 



Leaflets of Philippine Botany 



[Vol. VIII, Art. 115 



Judging by the fruits alone the author had no doubt of it 

 belonging to the genus Thea though the flowers are very cu- 

 rious. It may prove to be a new genus or belong to some 

 other family. 



THYMELEACEAE 



Phaleria axillaris Elm. n. sp. 



A low and spreading undershrub; stem terete but crooked, 

 quite rigid, tough, 1.25 cm thick, about 1 m high, opposite- 

 ly branched toward the top; wood whitish, with a whiter 

 colored pith, tasteless, vile in odor; bark smooth, yellowish 

 gray on the surface, greenish otherwise; branches horizontal, 

 unbranched. Leaves similarly spreading, thinly coriaceous, 

 membranous, much lighter green beneath; only the abrupt- 

 ly acute tips recurved, curing nearly equally brown on 

 both sides, entire, obtusely rounded or subcuneate at the 

 base, glabrous, oblong, oppositely scattered along the greenish 

 branches, the average blades 1.5 dm long by 6 cm wide 

 across the middle or above it; midvein rather prominent 

 beneath, narrowly grooved above, darker brown in the dry 

 state; lateral nerves 7 to 9 on each side, ascending and 

 little curved, tips of the upper ones at least faintly in- 

 terarching, reticulations barely visible under a lens; petiole 

 1 cm long or less, flattened and shallow! y grooved above, 

 glabrate, dark brown when dry; interpetiole also glabrate 

 when old, 5 mm long, broad at the base, extended into 

 a sharply acuminate point. Infrutescence in axillary clusters; 

 stalks 5 to 15 mm long, the longer ones usually branched, 

 all arising from a short and thick common stalk, ultimately 

 glabrate, the branches subtended by persistent bracts, the 

 slender fruit bearing pedicel bibracteate at about the middle 

 and usually ascendingly curved; pseudostalk 3 mm long or 

 twice as long, one half as wide, compressed, rigid, puberu- 

 lent, terminated at the distal end by a pair of short very 

 thick and acute bracts; pedicel 1.5 mm long or longer, sub- 

 terete and thinner though becoming somewhat enlarged in 

 the fruiting state; fruit glabrous, obscurely and angularly 



