24 
ROBINSON. 
4. Leucosyke hispidissima Miq. FI. Ind. Bat. 1 2 (1859) 265. 
Missiessya hispidissima Wedd. in Ann. Sci. Nat. Bot. IV 1 (1854) 195. 
Luzon, Province of Benguet, Baguio, Elmer 5906, 6083, 8972, Williams 1017. 
This species has been a great stumbling-block for all workers upon Philippine 
botany, and there is no certainty that its present identification is correct. The 
type was collected by Callery, “in ins. Manillae montibus Igorrotes.” This is 
very likely to have been not far from the present Baguio. The two points in the 
description that are most notable are the length of the petioles, given as 3 to 6 
cm, and of the stipules 1.5 cm. There is but one collection in this herbarium 
that will nearly agree with this, For. Bur. 1/316 Everett, from Negros, and there 
are many reasons for believing it not to be the true L. hispidissima. There are 
already three collections of historic interest in connection with the name, the type, 
Cuming 1672 from Panay, and Vidal 1801 from Mount Mayon, the two last 
identified by Vidal as L. hispidissima. I have not seen any of these, but suspect 
the Mayon plant to be the species here called L. aspera, and Cuming 1672 to be 
L. magallanensis Elmer, a species very similar to the one here identified as L. 
hispidissima but with different serration. No one of all our species agrees exactly 
with the description, and the present one especially differs in the length of the 
petioles, which reach only 13 mm and are usually much shorter, the stipules 
vary from 14 to 32 mm; the pistillate peduncles aVe 8 to 20 mm long, and the 
capitula are 8 to 11 mm in diameter. 
From an evolutional standpoint, it seems evident that our species, with the 
exception of L. nivea, have developed from L. capitellata, as shown by the great 
contrast between the number of collections that must still ■ be referred to that 
species and the very few whose characters differ sufficiently to cause them to be 
considered worthy of separate recognition. It seeming evident that the preceding 
species could most readily be keyed out from the rest by the stipules, a large 
number of those of all species have been examined, with the result that they 
have been found to yield very constant characters, the plants thus segregated 
being of such a nature that their specific distinctness would always have been 
suspected, though in the absence of any definite character they would more likely 
have been identified as L. capitellata f Only as between L. brunnescens and E. 
ovalifolia is the validity of their use doubtful. The stipules are regularly bifid 
for a rather definite distance from the apex, perhaps they would be better de- 
scribed as united up to a similar point, and are 2-costate, these costas being 
produced: in one case, typified by Merrill 1/81, from Culion, they are parted for 
about three-fourths of their length or on other stipules of the same plant entirely 
to the base, being then 1-costate. It is somewhat difficult to group these characters 
for the purposes of a key. 
In addition to- these costas, there are several additional more slender veins 
nearly parallel to them : these vary greatly in the ease with which they can be 
seen, but the differences are probably in all cases merely of degree, and the under- 
lying basis appears to be the texture of the stipules. This will explain its use 
in the key, the difficulty in application being that the thicker costa is likely 
to be taken as an index of the whole. In L. capitellata, for example, the texture 
is thicker than in the present species, although the latter exceeds most of the 
others, and the veins other than the costas are usually quite inconspicuous. It 
is to be remembered that this is not an artificial character by which certain col- 
lections have been separated, but that the differences indicated appear to hold 
good for plants that would have been suspected of different identity for other 
reasons. As this character has not hitherto been given much attention, it will 
not be surprising if some of the species here described as new, should prove iden- 
