248 
MERRILL. 
An aquatic glabrous plant. Leaves tufted, their petioles 10 to 25 cm 
long, the blades reniform, 4.5 to 6 cm long, about 8 cm wide, papyraceous, 
the apex broadly rounded, the base cordate; primary nerves 7 to 9, the 
cross reticulations lax, indistinct. Male flowers one, or commonly two, 
from tubular, linear spathes which are very slightly cleft at the apex 
and not keeled or ribbed, exserted in anthesis, the pedicels very slender; 
sepals and petals as in the pistillate flowers ; stamens 9, the filaments 
flattened, 1.5 to 2 mm long; anthers basifixed, oblong, 1.5 mm long; 
rudimentary pistil represented by a sessile, 1.5 mm long, cushion-like 
body, the styles none. Pistillate flowers white, solitary, their pedicels 
5 cm long or less; sepals 3, elliptic-oblong, about 7 mm long, 3.5 to 4 
mm wide, about 12-nerved; petals obovate, 12 mm long; styles 6, cleft 
two-thirds to the base, the arms glandular-hairy; staminodes of two 
kinds, 6 linear, 2.5 to 3 mm long, and 3 subsessile, capitate, 1 mm in 
diameter. Ovary several-celled, cylindric, smooth. Fruit unknown. 
Luzon, Province of Camarines, Bicol River, Bula, For. Bur. 1221Jf Curran, 
June 5, 1908. 
An interesting addition to our knowledge of the Philippine flora, the first 
representative of the genus to be found in the Philippines. It is allied to Boottia 
cordata Wall., of British India, but differs in many characters, notably in its 
reniform leaves, linear, tubular spathes which contain but one or two flowers, the 
staminate flowers without rudimentary styles, and the pistillate flowers with two 
kinds of staminodes, six linear and three capitate. The genus contains about 15 
species, in tropical Africa and Asia. 
GfRAMINEFE. 
PANICUM L inn. 
Panicum malabaricum (Linn.) comb. nov. 
Poa malabarica Linn. Sp. PI. (1753) 69. 
Panicum arnottianum Nees in Steud. Syn. PI. Gram. (1854) 59. 
Panicum nodosum Hook. f. FI. Brit. Ind. 7 (1897) 43, excl. syn., non Ivunth. 
Hooker f. 1 referred Poa malabarica Linn, to Centotheca lappacea (Linn.) Desv., 
but gave no reason for this. Considering that he was correct I transferred the 
name to Centotheca as C. malabarica (Linn.) Merr. It seems, however, that 
Hooker f. was in error in citing Poa malabarica Linn, as a synonym of Cento- 
theca lappacea. Munro in his paper on the grasses of the Linnean herbarium 
states regarding Poa malabarica “P(oa) malabarica is Panicum arnottianum 
Nees. The reference to Rheede is correct; it is a very fair drawing.” 2 Linnaeus’ 
species is manifestly based on Tsjama-pullu of Rheede, Hortus Malabaricus 12:83, 
t. Jf.5. Through the kindness of Mrs. Agnes Chase of the United States Depart- 
ment of Agriculture, I have received a tracing of the above plate, and although 
the plate is crude, it seems to be well matched by several specimens in our her- 
barium determined as Panicum nodosum Kunth. Three specimens from Singa- 
pore, collected by Ridley resemble it very closely. 
FI. Brit. Ind. 7 (1897) 332. 
2 Journ. Linn. Soc. Bot. 6 (1862) 43. 
