1890 Lbaflets of Philippine Botany (Vol. V, Art. 94 



Psychotria epiphytica Elm. n. sp. 



Epiphytic upon the limbs of large trees; branches 

 rigid, smooth, brown, breaking with a snap, 1 cm. thick, 

 terete, glabrous even the pale young portion, the numerous 

 branchlets usually in subwhorls. Leaves also copious, oppo- 

 site, closely scattered along all the branchlets, ascending or 

 horizontal, shining, glabrous, pale green on both sides and simi- 

 larly curing very dark or reddish brown, deeply folded and 

 the acuminate apex strongly recurved, coriaceous, while dry- 

 ing becoming detached, base broadly obtuse, entire, leaving 

 rim-iike scars after falling, normal blades 3 cm. long by 1.25 

 cm. wide across the middle or a trifle below it, ovately ob- 

 long or the smaller ones broadly lanceolate; midvein black 

 and quite evident; the lateral nerves 3 to 5, ascendingly 

 curved, more evident from the upper side, reticulations none; 

 petiole nearly black, 3 mm. in length; interaxillary stipule 

 chartaceous, glabrous, caducous, broad and rounded at apex, 

 4 ram, long. Infrutescence terminal, erect, 4 to 6 cm. long, 

 branched from below the middle; peduncle one third the 

 length, striate, subtended at the base by stipular bracts and 

 a pair of leaves; branches erect or ascending, angular, free- 

 ly rebranched from above the middle, all branchlets subtended 

 at their articulate bases by rim -like bi^acts or bract vestiges; fruits 

 upon very short stipes which are likewise subtended by brac- 

 teoles; mature drupes in the fresh state subglobose, ellipsoid 

 when dry, 7.5 mm. long when fresh, less than 5 mm. long 

 in the dry state, 7 mm. thick across the middle, light 

 chalky white, longitudinally grooved on the two sides, red- 

 dish brown, terminated by the persistent 4-lobed calyx, glab- 

 rous and smooth even in the young state; pyrenes 2, elliptic from 

 the side view, equally tapering and rounded at both ends, 3.5 

 mm. long, nearly 2 mm. wide across the middle, occasion- 

 ally the inner side of one pyrene is concave and the opposite 

 pyrene has a convex inner surface, back with edges rounded. 



Type specimen number 14199, A. D. E. Elmer, Cabad- 

 ba^an (Mt. Urdaneta), Province of Agusan, Mindanao, Oct- 

 ober, 1912. 



Upon steep forested slopes near the ridge at 5500 feet al- 



