2990 



Leaflets of Philippine Botany 



[Vol. VIII, Art. 119 



green above, tips abruptly recurved, margins wavy; fruit 

 cluster upon the basal and outer side of the stems, erect, 

 3 to 5 inches long, usually few short branched from the 

 base; fruits ellipsoid or fusiformly ellipsoid, obscurely 

 compressed, .5 to .75 inch long, dirty yellowish or when 

 exposed becoming reddish tinged, covered by rotten bracts 

 and old foliage. 



Represented by numbers 16216 and 16062, Elmer, Irosirt 

 (Mt. Bulusan), Province of Sorsogon, Luzon, May, 1916. 



Frequently observed along damp wooded ridges of 

 the subalpine hills facing the Pacific ocean. More re- 

 cently it was again collected on mount Maquiling. So 

 far its known distribution is along the Pacific from Lu- 

 zon to Mindanao. 



VANOVERBSRGIA Merr. 



Vanoverbergia sepulchre! Merr. 



Field-note for 17095: — Large dense tussocks in wet 

 more or less stony ground of very steep densely wooded 

 slopes dipping into precipitous canyons at 3000 feet al- 

 titude. Stems ascending, terete, 1 inch thick, 10 to 15 

 feet long, leaf bearing from the middle, enlarged at the 

 base and red bracteate; leaflets horizontal or descending, 

 coriaceous, nearly flat except the twisted tail-like tips, 

 dull green above, slightly paler beneath, the midrib 

 yellowish brown or red, margins rugulose toward the 

 apex, in alternating rows 3 inches apart, the lower 

 ones much reduced; sheaths green or when old grayish 

 white, the ligule deep or dull red; the spike-like inflo- 

 rescence terminal, recurved. 1.5 foot long; peduncle terete, 

 it as well as the rachis deep red or when young pink; 

 pedicels pale pink; young bud bracts brownish and with 

 pink tips, soon turning dry and subpersistent; ovary 

 deep red; corolla bud erect, terete, pale white or with 

 sulphureus tips; the coriaceous corrolla and inner floral 

 organs soon perishing and forming an intermixed watery 

 rotten mass with the subtending bracts and sheaths; 

 fruit ellipsoid or subglobose, at most .5 inch thick, 

 obovoid when young, deep wine red, more or less hid- 

 den by the old nearly decayed floral parts; seeds nu- 

 merous, whitish, in a conglomerate mass. 



Represented by numbers 17095 and 17383. Elmer, Irosin 

 (Mt. Bulusan), Province of Sorsogon. Luzon, August and 

 September respectively, 1916. 



A coarse alpine plant in very humid almost inac- 

 cessible places. Quite variable and apparently nearest 



