20,4 Merrill: Noteworthy Philippine Plants, XVII 369 



slender, distinct as are the rather close reticulations; petioles 

 reddish-brown when dry, 5 to 7 cm long; stipules broadly ovate, 

 shortly acuminate, pubescent, about 6 mm long. Receptacles 

 borne in fascicles along the ultimate branches below the leaves, 

 usually 3 or 4 in a fascicle, the fascicles numerous, the individual 

 receptacles globose to slightly obovoid, 6 to 7 mm in diameter, 

 very densely and softly pubescent with silver white to pale ferru- 

 ginous hairs, their peduncles densely pubescent, about 5 mm 

 long, the bracts subtending the receptacles broadly ovate, obtuse, 

 glabrous or slightly pubescent, 1.5 to 2 mm long. Male flowers 

 few, only near the ostiole, the stamen 1, about 0.5 mm long. 

 Ovaries of the gall flowers and fertile female flowers ovoid, about 

 1 mm long, the styles of the former about 0.5 mm in length, 

 those of the latter 1 mm long. Perianth segments membra- 

 naceous, oblong-lanceolate, about 1 mm long. 



MiNDORO, Paluan, Bur. Sci. 39732 Ramos, April 9, 1921. In 

 dry forests at low altitudes. 



This species is closely allied to Ficus stipulosa Miq. which has 

 been reduced by some authors to the widely distributed Indo- 

 Malayan Ficus infectoria Roxb. It is readily distinguished by 

 its very densely pale pubescent peduncles and receptacles. 

 Blanco described the receptacles as flowers and the subtending 

 bracts as the calyx. The specimens on which the above descrip- 

 tion was based agree very closely with Blanco's original descrip- 

 tion except that the leaves are scarcely undulate, while the recep- 

 tacles are globose to slightly obovoid rather than "de figura de 

 trompa," that is, pyriform. I have seen no other species of 

 Ficus that even remotely agrees with Blanco's imperfect de- 

 scription and am confident that the plant here considered repre- 

 sents the form he so imperfectly described. In my Species 

 Blancoanae (1918) 129, I expressed the opinion that Ficus 

 argentea Blanco might have been based on immature specimens 

 of Ficus ruficaulis Merr. but the recent receipt of material agree- 

 ing essentially with Blanco's description shows that this surmise 

 was wrong. 



FICUS XAVIERI sp. nov. § Urostigma. 



Species F. benjaminae simillimis et afiinis differt receptaculis 

 dense et moUiter cinereo-pubescentibus. 



A strangling fig reaching a height of 10 m or more, branches 

 and receptacles densely and softly cinereous-pubescent. 

 Branches glabrous, terete, grayish, the younger ones more or 

 less rugose, the young branchlets 2 to 2.5 mm in diameter. 



