2914 



LEAFLETS OF PHILIPPINE BOTAXY 



[Vol. Villi Art. lit! 



cm long, the average ones 3 cm apart; sheath overlapping, 

 well separated especially toward the top, margins subgla- 

 brate, striate especially toward the throat, glabrous, yellow- 

 ish brown when dry; ligule entire, rounded, 3 nun long 

 and as wide in the larger ones, short and densely pubes- 

 cent. Flowers not known. Infrutescence 1 dm long, terminal; 

 peduncle green, 3 to 5 cm long, subtended by a single 

 marcescent sheath; rachis of the spike puberuient, ascendingly 

 curved; pedicels cinereous or short grayish lanose pubescent, 

 5 to 8 mm long, solitary, usually curved, alternating, at the 

 base surrounded by thin brown bract vestiges; fruits 1 to 1.5 

 cm across, ellipsoid or subglobose, divaricate, slightly pubes- 

 cent when young, ultimately glabrate or pubeiulent with 

 faint longitudinal costae, bearing the blunt vestige of the 

 calyx; carpels dry, tardily dehiscing from the apex into 3 

 divisions; cells 3, with thin whitish partitions; ovules numer- 

 ous, conglomerated and attached to the central portion of the 

 partitions; seeds irregular and with lighter brown edges. 



Type specimen number 8853, A. D. E. Elmer, Baguio, 

 Province of Benguet, Luzon, March, 1907. 



Quite common in very damp and deeply shaded ravines 

 near the barrio of Sablan. The Igorot called it "Kagda-opot" 

 and the buibose base of the stem is eaten by the same 

 natives. 



The fruiting character is almost exactly that of Van- 

 overberghia rather than that of an Alpinia. 



Zingiber apoense Elm. n. -p. 



Small or few stemmed clusters; stems about 3, swollen 

 at the rhizome, ascending and recurved toward the top, the 

 basal one third leafless, 1 to 1.5 m high, imbricately shea t lied 

 toward the base, 1 cm thick. Leaflets also recurved, thinly 

 coriaceous, dull green above, paler beneath, curing unequally 

 brown on the 2 sides, alternate, flat, the basal ones 

 becoming bract-like, glabrous, smooth on both sides, linear 

 to lanceolate, sessile, 4 cm apart, gradually tapering to the 

 slenderly acuminate point, cuneate toward and obtusely 

 terminating at the base, 2 to 3 dm long by 3 to 4 cm 

 wide at the middle; sheath in the early state sparsely 



