LEAFLETS OF PHILIPPINE BOTANY 



j 

 EDITED BY A. D. E. ELMER, A. M. ! 



..^ 



Vol. V. Manila, P. I., May 5, 1913. Art. 78. | 



DIOSCOREAE ELMERIANAE 



A contribution to our knowledge of the genua Diotcorea 

 in the Philippine Islands 



By 



D. Prain 



(Director, Royal Botanic Gardens, Keio, London) 



I. H. Burkill 



(Director, Botanic Gardens, Singapore) 



The following pages are to be regarded as a supplement 

 to a paper on the genus Dioscorea which will appear in the 

 Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. In the paper re- 

 ferred to, we have enumerated all the species of this genus 

 which are known to us as occurring in the Old World, Africa 

 excepted; and we have described a dozen new species, but 

 not those collected by Mr. Elmer in the Philippine Islands 

 which have been reserved for his Leaflets. Mr. Elmer's are 

 six in number. One of them is D. flabellifolia, — a repre- 

 sentative apparently of the northern section Stenophora: two are 

 species of the section Lasiophyton, — which shows a great tend- 

 ency to give rise to new forms in the Philippine Islands: 

 one is an ally of the D. luzoncnsis — an outstanding memlier 

 of the section Enantiophyllum: and the other two are seg- 

 regates of D. nummularia, which is the eastern representative 

 of the western Malayan D. pyrifolia. The section Stenophora, 



