2854 



Leaflets of Philippine Botany 



[Vol. VIII, Art. 115 



Elatostema surigaoense Elm. n. sp. 



Perennial herbs; stems few from the same root, 2 cm 

 thick, easily breaking, terete, dull green, 2 m high, branch- 

 ed from below the middle; main branches widely spreading 

 or strongly bent, crookedly recurved, the ultimate ones 

 suberect, quite freely rebranched, glabrate, curing blackish, 

 the twigs when dry striate. Leaves descending, subcoriaceous, 

 duller above, llat, terminated by a sharply pointed acumi- 

 nate to caudate lecurved apex, a trifle inequilateral, base 

 obliquely broad cuneate or obtusely rounded, subsessile, very 

 variable in size, entire below the middle, otherwise coarsely 

 dentate to the apical point especially along the lower edge 

 of the broader side, elongated or the smallest blades broad- 

 ly lanceolate or nearly so, always broadest across the mid- 

 dle, the . upper surface sprinkled with numerous minute 

 cystoliths, also glabrous beneath except the few small stri- 

 gose hairs along the midrib and nerves or even along the 

 reticulations, the average ones 12 cm long by one fourth 

 as wide at the middle, the young dark purplish tinged be- 

 neath when dry, otherwise curing ater on both sides; bud 

 bracts linear and setaceously pointed, involute, 4 to 6 mm 

 long, covered with grayish appressed hairs; midrib con- 

 spicuous beneath, also evident from the upper side, yellow- 

 ish strigose and black when dry on the nether side; nerves 

 along the lower side 5 to 7, the basal one arising from 

 near the base and running 8 mm from the edge of the 

 leaf, connecting with the first or middle ones, the upper 

 ones merely ascendingly curved, their tips coarsely anastomos- 

 ing and terminating in the teeth; the lower nerves of the 

 upper or narrower side arising 1 cm from the base, simi- 

 larly extending along the edge of the leaf though longer 

 than its corresponding lower nerve, also coarsely anastomos- 

 ing with the 3 to 5 nerves above the middle of the lamina, 

 cross b.irs and reticulations numerous anrl quite evident from 

 beneath. Florets numerous, the sessile clusters lateral or axil- 

 lary, odorless, whitish when in anthesis; involucre disk-like, 

 obscurely lobed, 1 cm across, subcoriaceous, glabrous, brown 

 in the dry state, the lobes broadly elliptic; staminate flowers 

 apparently in scattered groups surrounded by an involucel; 



