PHILIPPINE URTICACEAE, II. 
301 
probably tetramerous ; 20 flowers from one receptacle of Bur. Sci. 81S6, 
a good but not perfect match for Cuming’s plant, were all pentamerous. 
Adding E. pinnaiinervium and E. varidbile, both tetramerous, and other 
species herein and previously described, there are now known in the 
Philippines 31 species with tetramerous flowers, 9 with pentamerous 
flowers, while those of 8 species are still unknown. Decision upon the 
relative importance of the character will depend largely upon the opinions 
held of the nature of the 31 and the 9 respectively, so far at least as 
our species are concerned, and it must be confessed that the weight of 
previous opinion regarding these or those most similar to them, would not 
set much value upon it. Yet it does separate 9 species, five of them 
having much similarity to one another, while the other four, E. simulans, 
E. longifolium, E. obtusiusculum, and E. coniiguum have a different ap- 
pearance from the other four but again much resemblance to one another. 
Much work must be done upon 'species of other countries before a final 
opinion can be passed. 
16a. Elatostema discolor sp. nov. 
Caulibus basi repentibus, appresse-pubescentibus : receptaculis stami- 
niferis sessilihus, bracteis ovatis, vix corniculatis ; floribus pentameris: 
foliis discoloribus, parvis, oblique obovatis vel late oblanceolatis, lateris 
latioris basi auriculatis, supra medium grosse dentatis, subtrinerviis. 
Staminate receptacles sessile; outer pair of bracts of the larger recep- 
tacles ovate, about 2.5 mm long, only very obscurely corniculate, ciliate 
on the apical half of the margins and especially at the apex, often also 
with yellowish-brown pubescence on the dorsal surface or with cystoliths, 
inner pairs of bracts similar, about 2 mm long; bracteoles oblaneeolate, 
about 2 mm long, densely ciliate toward the apex; pedicels of mature 
flowers about 2 mm long; perianth-segments 5, oblong, oblong-oblan- 
ceolate, or broadly lanceolate, about 2 mm long, ciliate on the apical half 
of the margins and especially at the apex; filament^ about 2 mm long; 
anthers white, the cells widely separated at the base, less than 1 mm long. 
Stems 15 to 35 cm long, creeping and rooting near the base, and there 
often branching, the leaf-bearing parts erect or suberect, rarely branched, 
the stems densely covered with appressed, apically directed, strigose, 
yellowish pubescence; leaves subsessile, the lamina obovate or broadly 
oblaneeolate, the lowest often reduced in size, the others 15 to 27 mm 
long, 7 to 12 mm wide, strongly inequilateral especially at the base, the 
narrower side obtuse, the broader side produced into a short auricle, both 
margins usually with 3 teeth of comparatively large size, or the wider side 
with 4 or the narrower with 2, the apical tooth 4 mm long, or less, lan- 
ceolate to ovate, not projecting beyond the general outline; upper surface 
plumbeous, under surface yellowish-green, the upper with, a few, scattered, 
long hairs or glabrous, and with densely crowded cystoliths, the margins 
with similar hairs or glabrous, the veins of the under surface appressed- 
