X. c. 5 Merrill: Philippine Plants, XII gJJ 



constituents of the Samoan and Philippine flora is so very striking that 

 Vaupel's entire collection might almost as well have been made at some 

 point in the Philippines; the percentage of difference as to species is no 

 greater between Vaupel's Samoan collection and the general run of the 

 Philippine flora than is noted in current collections made in botanically 

 unexplored parts of the Philippines as compared with the known flora of 

 the Archipelago. 



K. Schumann and Lauterbach note that oil produced by the fruits is 

 used in the Solomon Islands for caulking the seams of boats; in the 

 Philippines it is used by the natives of Agusan Valley, Mindanao, for 

 water-proofing bamboo and rattan baskets. The following note was sup- 

 plied by Dr. M. L. Miller, of the division of ethnology, Bureau of 

 Science, and communicated by him with botanical specimens: "The fruit 

 of the tabon-tabon tree, when mature, is full of a yellowish-white pulp, 

 that has about the hardness of a camote (sweet potato). On being rubbed 

 over a rough surface, such as a rattan plaiting, it fills the interstices, 

 assuming a chocolate color and drying within an hour to a hardness that 

 does not crack under a torrid sun. The coating of tabon-tabon on baskets, 

 etc., is frequently darkened in color with charcoal." 



Native names: tambon-tambon (Masbate) ; batobon (Palawan) ; tabun- 

 tabun (Albay) ; tabon-tabon (Surigao, Agusan). 



As to nomenclature, the oldest valid specific name applied to the Philip- 

 pine form is Parinarium mindanaense Perk., the type of which I have 

 examined in the Berlin herbarium. Parinarium racemosum Merr., published 

 a few months later, and during the same year, is invalidated by P. race- 

 mosum Vid. (1880) ; P. curranii Merr. w^as proposed as a new name for 

 P. racemosum Merr., non Vidal. 



PYGEUM Gaertner 



PYGEUM EUPHLEBIUM sp. nov. 



Arbor 10 m alta, subtus foliis ad costa ramulis inflorescen- 

 tiisque f errugineo-villosis ; foliis oblongis, coriaceis, usque ad 

 10 cm longis, integris, acuminatis, basi subacutis ad rotundatis, 

 nervis utrinque 8 ad 10, supra impressis, subtus valde prominen- 

 tibus, reticulis laxis, obscuris; racemis spiciformibus, brevibus, 

 fasciculatis, 1 ad 1.5 cm longis, bracteolis deciduis, fructibus 

 junioribus anguste ovoideis, plus minusve f errugineo-villosis. 



A tree about 10 m high, the young branches, inflorescence, 

 petioles, and the leaves along the midrib on the lower surface 

 rather prominently ferruginous-villous. Branches slender, te- 

 rete, dark brownish-purple, glabrous. Leaves oblong, coria- 

 ceous, 7 to 10 cm long, 2 to 4 cm wide, the upper surface shining, 

 brownish-olivaceous, the lower paler, brownish, the apex shortly 

 and sharply acuminate, the base subacute to rounded, with one 

 or two plane, dark-colored, small glands evident on the lower 

 surface near the base; lateral nerves impressed on the upper 

 surface, very prominent on the lower surface, 8 to 10 on each 



