August 25, 1915] Notes and Descriptions oe Zingiberackae 



2919 



Zingiber sylvaticutn Elm. n. sp. 



Stems few to several from the same root, weak, strongly 

 recurved or nearly prostrate, spreading, 1 to 2 m long, 

 smooth, soft, terete, green, the basal one half provided 

 with bracts. Leaves alternatingly scattered, soft, mem- 

 branous, flat, much paler green beneath, not numer- 

 ous, divaricate, the basal one smaller, glabrous except 

 the sparsely pilose midrib on the nether side, lanceolate, 10 

 to 17 cm long, 2 to 2.5 cm wide across the middle or the 

 wide3t portion, slenderly acuminate toward or at the apex, 

 subattenuate toward the base, sessile; sheath becoming well 

 separated, the thinner margins glabrous and red spotted, 

 glabrate or sparsely pubescent toward the throat; ligule sub- 

 membranous, few to 5 mm long, truncate or broadly notched 

 across the apex, purplish spotted when young. Old infruteseent 

 head flame red, 7 cm long by one half as thick, erect, upon 

 a 7 to 12 cm long stalk arising from the bulhose base of 

 the stem; peduncle 1.25 cm thick or thinner, ascending or 

 erect, terete, glabrous at least when old, bract covered; bracts 

 membranous, imbricate, the longer ones 3 dm long, oblong, 

 glabrate or pulverulent on the outside toward the top, 

 purplish striate and spotted toward the apex, the upper hejid 

 bracts irregularly subtruncate across the apex and with the 

 sides strongly rolled in upon the ventral side. 



Type specimen number 9843, A. D. E. Elmer, Duma- 

 guete (Cuernos Mts.), Province of Negros Oriental, Negro.-, 

 April, 1908. 



Gathered in damp earth of herbaceous thickets upon a steep 

 wooded slope at 4250 feet altitude. Here is also referred 

 my number 9283 from Lucban, Luzon. It is a rare plant, 

 only to be found in subalpine woods. 



This same type number Dr. Ridley referred under his new 

 Zingiber mollis but our spikes are radical and there are other 

 differences. Neither should it be confounded with Zingiber 

 apiense Elm. nor with its nearest related the common 



lowland . ' {Linn.) Smith, 



