DESCRIPTIVE CATALOGUE. 267 



In India the root is used as a remedy for syphilis. The Mohammedans regard it 

 as an antidote to vegetable poisons. In Leyte and other Visayan Provinces of the 

 Philippines the natives drink an infusion of the leaves and call the plant "wild tea" 

 (cha cimarron). 

 References: 



Ehretia microphylla Lam. Tabl. Encyc. 1 : 425. 1791. 

 Cordia return Vahl, Symb. 2: 42. 1791. 

 Ehretia buxifotia Roxb. PI. Corom. 1 : 42. t. 57. 1795. 

 Elatostema pedunculatum. Strawberry-nettle. 



Family Urticaceae. 

 An herbaceous plant or undershrub growing on rocks or trunks of dead trees. 

 Leaves of two forms differing greatly in size, alternate, arranged in two rows, a large 

 leaf on one side with a small leaf on the opposite side; the large leaves lanceolate or 

 oblong-lanceolate, oblique, feather- veined, acuminate, acute at the base, entire or 

 obscurely sinuate-serrate at the tip; the small leaves bract-like, subsessile, lanceo- 

 late; stipules axillary; male flowers in cymes, with peduncles 1 to 2 cm. long; female 

 flowers sessile, crowded in heads; heads white at first, growing to the size of a small 

 strawberry, and turning red on ripening. « First collected on the island of Guam 

 by Gaudichaud. 

 References: 

 Elatostema pedunculatum Forst. Char. Gen. 105. t. 53. 1776. 

 Procris pedunculata (Forst.) Wedd. in DC. Prod. 16 1 : 191. 1869. 

 This is Forster's first species and the one he figured, and should therefore be 

 taken as the type of the genus. Procris was proposed as a name for this genus in 

 1789. 



Elder, -wild. See Premna gaudichaudii. 

 Elemi, Manila. See Canarium indicum. 



Eleocharis atropurpurea Presl. Same as Eleocharis capitata. 



Elocharis capitata. Spike-rush. 



Family Cyperaceae. 

 An annual sedge with fibrous roots, growing in moist places. Culms densely 

 tufted, nearly terete, almost filiform; leaves reduced to sheaths; upper sheath trun- 

 cate, 1 toothed; spikelet solitary, ovoid, much thicker than the culm, many-flowered, 

 not subtended by an involucre; scales concave, spirally imbricated all around, 

 broadly ovate, obtuse, firm, brown with a greenish midvein, narrowly scarious- 

 margined, persistent; stamens mostly 2; style 2-cleft; bristles 5 to 8, slender, down- 

 wardly hispid, as long as the achene; achene obovate, jet black, smooth, shining, 

 nearly 1 mm. long; base of style persistent on summit of achene, forming a tubercle; 

 tubercle depressed, apiculate, constricted at the base, very much shorter than the 

 achene. 



Collected by Haenke in Guam. 

 References: 

 Eleocharis capitata (L.) R. Br. Prod. 225. 1810. 

 Sdrpus capitatus L. Sp. PL 1 : 48. 1753. 

 Eleocharis plantaginoidea. Spike-rush. 



Local names. — Uchaga lahe (Guam) ; Boru-pun (Ceylon) ; Harefo (Madagascar). 

 A glabrous, leafless sedge. Stems simple, erect, without nodes; sheaths few, cylin- 

 drical, truncate or with a small unilateral subapical tooth, barren leaf-like stems 

 often present; inflorescence a single terminal spikelet; glumes imbricated on all 

 sides, obtuse; lowest "bract" (not always empty) not longer than the spikelet; 

 lowest flower nut-bearing, perfect; many succeeding glumes, usually nut-bearing, 



«Engler, Nat. Pflanzenfamilien, Teil 3, Abt. 1, p. 109, fig. 79, 1894. 



