DECEMBER 23, 1910] EvPHORBIACEAE COLLECTED ON SIBUYAN ISLAND 919. | 
tions as the previous species, but is much less common. 
Indeed it takes close observation to detect that there are - 
in the same locality two quite distinct yet very similar species. 
Gelonium meliocarpum Elm. n. sp. 
Suberect shrub; stem 5 cm. thick, 3 to 4 m. high; the 
main branches arising from the middle, quite rigid, spar- 
ingly rebranched, divaricately spreading; wood light, white, 
without odor or taste, easily cutting; bark yellowish gray, 
minutely checked or lenticelled when old. Leaves horizontal, 
slightly recurved, nearly flat, dark green above, much light- 
er so beneath, alternatingly scattered, glabrous, light green 
even in the dry state, the entire margins subinvolute, diverse 
in size, gradually acuminate or abruptly acute at apex, the 
base obtuse or subcuneate, the average blade 12 cm. long, 
nearly 5 cm. wide across the middle, ovately to oblongish 
elliptic or the smaller ones broadly lanceolate, both sides 
similarly puncticulate; petiole stout, glabrous or scurfy beneath, 
at most 1 cm. long; midvein prominent beneath, the 6 to 
9 lateral ones faint, the reticulations scarcely evident. Flow- 
ers solitary or in small groups, usually sessile upon short 
tubercles in the leaf axils or opposite them, odofless, creamy 
yellow, deciduous, subtended by minute bracts; the 3 outer 
perianth segments finely ciliate, broad, rounded at apex, 3. 
mm. long, the inner 2 or 3 usually smaller and hyaline; 
stamens about 20; filaments subequal, 4.5 mm. long, free, 
whitish, promiscuously inserted upon a sort of a spongy 
receptacle, intermixed with small lamellae; anthers broadly 
ellipsoid, nearly 0.75 mm. long, subbasifixed; fruit subses- 
sile, ascending, axillary, globose, bright red, its thick exocarp 
white and mealy, 3-celled, 1.5 to 2 em. in diameter, the 
seeds black and covered with a whitish membrane, subtended 
by the persistent segmented perianth; placentae central and 
also persistent. eh 
Type specimens 12357 in flower and 12075 in fruit, - 
A. D. E. Elmer, Magallanes (Mt. Giting-giting), Province - 
of Capiz, Island of Sibuyan, April and March respectively, 
1910. : d 
This undershrub was commonly seen in well drained soil 
