2848 



Leaflets of Philippine Botany 



[Vol. VIII, Art. 115 



mentose on the dorsal side. Inflorescence or infrutescence 

 axillary, green, suberect and lying across the upper side of 

 the stem, solitary, the odorless flowers greenish white; pe- 

 duncle green, fleshy, few mm long, hispidly pubescent; in- 

 volucre 1 to 1.5 cm wide, composed of 2 alternating pairs 

 of broad lobes, thickly coriaceous, green, slightly hispid on 

 the outside, occasionally more or less united into a fleshy 

 disk; flowers grouped in 4's, staminate, very numerous and 

 dense upon the upper surface of the involucral disk; in- 

 volucels hyaline, containing several florets; bracteoles 2 mm 

 long, unequal in width, with a relatively conspicuous mid- 

 rib especially toward the distal ends, several, obcuneate or 

 obovately oblong, 1.5 mm wide across the broadened apical 

 portion, the keel and around the apex ciliate; pedicels near- 

 ly as long as the bracts, subhyaline, somewhat compressed, 

 persistent, glabrous, unequal in length; the 4 involucral 

 bracts subtending the 4 stamens 1 mm long, oblong to 

 ovate, smooth and transparent; filaments short, longer when 

 mature, also transparent; anther less than 1 mm long, in- 

 flexed, fimdly in the reverse position, the cells well sep- 

 arated from the base to the apex and subterete, basifixed; 

 pistillate flowers not observed. 



Type specimen number 13894, A. D. E. Elmer, Cabad- 

 baran (Mt. Urdaneta), Province of Agusan, Mindanao, Sept- 

 ember, 1912. 



Discovered this most characteristic of our Philippine 

 species of Elatostema in shallow earth covering huge bowl- 

 ders strewn along the solidly shaded Catangan creek bed 

 at 3000 feet elevation. Named with pleasure after our son 

 Anton Dambor Elmer. The Manobo name is "Calang- 

 boaw," 



This plant is easily cured and its large underneath leaf 

 surfaces are long hairy. The stems lie over the bowlders 

 in great confusion, their internodes are most characteristical- 

 ly channeled longitudinally along the upper side, each series 

 of internodal channels alternating with the adjoining ones. 

 Some of these channels extend one half way through the 

 stem and are relatively wide. They serve as water reservoirs 

 during the dry desicating days or periods. 



