X, c, 5 Merrill: Philippine Plants, XII 291 



2 mm long, obtuse or acute, slightly ciliate at the apex, dark- 

 colored, not glandular. Petals 3, hyaline, linear-oblanceolate, 

 about 1.5 mm long, slightly ciliate at the apex, not glandular. 

 Ovary 3-celled; style-arms 3. Seeds minutely striate. 



Luzon, Benguet Subprovince, Trinidad River, Bur. Sci. SSH Ramos 

 (tjrpe), December, 1908; Baguio, Merrill 77^8, May, 1911, Williams lOOi, 

 October, 1904; Lepanto Subprovince, Balili, Merrill 46^6, November, 1905. 



This species is apparently distinct from all described ones, characterized 

 especially by the corolla of the male flow^ers being reduced to a single 

 ciliate-cleft petal, consisting of several jointed filiform lobes. It appears 

 to fall in the section defined by Ruhland under section 5 of his key. 



ERIOCAULON ALPESTRE Hook. f. & Th. ex Koern. in Miq. Ann. Mus. 

 Lugd. Bat. 3 (1867) 163; Ruhl. in Engl. Pflanzenreich 13 (1903) 95. 



Mindanao, District of Davao, Mount Apo, Copeland H31, October, 1904, 

 altitude about 1,800 meters, seen in only one place. 



Mountains of India to Indo-China, China, and Japan; not previously 

 reported from the Philippines. 



ERIOCAULON CINEREUM R. Br. Prodr. (1810) 254; Benth. Fl. Austral. 

 7 (1878) 193. 



Eriocaulon sieboldianum Sieb. & Zucc. ex Steud. Syn. 2 (1855) 272; 

 Ruhl. in Engl. Pflanzenreich 13 (1903) 111. 



Luzon, Subprovince of Abra, in rice paddies. For. Bur. 16^58 Bacani: 

 Subprovince of Bontoc, in rice paddies, Vanoverbergh 602: Province of 

 Rizal, Caloocan, Phil. PI. 293 Merrill (distributed as E. merrillii) , Bur. Sci. 

 9501 Robinson (pro parte). 



This very widely distributed species does not appear to be common in 

 the Philippines; at least it has been collected but a few times. I can see 

 no valid reason for ignoring Robert Brown's specific name, as it is certainly 

 valid and antedates the one accepted by Ruhland (E. seiboldianum) by 

 forty-five years. 



ERIOCAULON MERRILLII Ruhl. in Perk. Frag. FL Philip. (1904) 136. 



This species was based on Merrill 572, collected in the Island of Culion. 

 As described by Ruhland, one of the special characters by which the species 

 is distinguished from allied forms is the absence of sepals in the female 

 flowers. This character alone does not appear to be a valid one, for in 

 the original collection, two sheets of which are in our herbarium, most of 

 the heads have female flowers with two sepals, while other flowers are 

 without them. The species, as interpreted by me, is the commonest and 

 most widely distributed one in the Philippines, and appears to me to be very 

 closely allied to, if not identical with, Eriocaulon truncatum Ham. I would 

 refer to it the following specimens : 



Luzon, Province of Tarlac, Merrill 3624: Province of Zambales, For. 

 Bur. 8153 Curran & Merritt: Province of Nueva Ecija, Bur. Sci. 5277 

 McGregor : Province of Rizal, vicinity of Manila, Merrill 7122, Bur. Sci. 

 9500, 9501 (pro parte) Robinson, McGregor s. n. POLILLO, Bur. Sci. 9031 

 Robinson. Cvhioi^, Merrill 572 (cotype). MINDANAO, Province of Surigao, 

 Piper 534: District of Lanao, Camp Keithley, Mrs. Clemens 909 (pro parte), 



