PHILIPPINE URTICACEAE, II. 
309 
separated with ease by leaf-characters. Indeed, by forcing characters which are 
ordinarily stable, four species could be deliminated. The nature of the material 
itself shows that such a proceeding would be most inadvisable. The final 
difficulty comes with Merrill 7 639, 1640, collected some days apart from nearly 
the same locality on Mount Tonglon. Some of the plants are as to leaves 
typical E. variabile, others are equally typical E. carinoi, some few have the 
upper leaves of the former type, but the lower ones approaching those of the 
latter. Both of these have staminate receptacles. On 1639, these are sessile 
except on one plant, where they are very short, while on 1640 they are shortly 
peduncled or sessile, with no difference in this or any other respect between 
those in the axils of the two types of leaves. E. carinoi and E. variabile are 
therefore very closely allied, having identical receptacles with the same range 
of variation in their attachment, nor can any sufficient means of separation 
be found in stipules or pubescence. There remains in doubt the question of 
leaf-outline, with which the venation is inseparably connected. This is not 
simply due to difference in habitat. For example, the two forms were found 
together in the two last collections cited, while my two collections, both per- 
fectly typical E. carinoi, came from quite different conditions, one growing 
in muddy soil along the edge of a ditch among grasses not tall enough to 
overshadow it, the other was on rock, exposed to the spray of a small waterfall, 
within a small cavern where it was sheltered from direct, sunlight except in 
the early morning. The link between the species is in the resemblance between 
lower leaves of E. variabile and normal ones of E. carinoi : it is not yet quite 
complete. 
Elatostema carinoi is in cultivation at Camp John Hay, near Baguio, growing 
luxuriantly on rocks in the spray of a small fountain, the only known instance 
where a species of the genus has been so utilized in the Philippines. 
From references to pubescence above and its frequent use in my keys and 
elsewhere, one without access to the material might suspect that species were 
being segregated with this as the main character. It is therefore advisable to 
state that it has been found to be very constant, especially upon the stems, and 
has been offered as a guide only in the cases where not only this is so, but other 
characters are present, less easily or at any rate less briefly described. On the 
leaves, it is not so constant. It does not hold with E. lagunense, where in the 
large clump of plants from which the type and other collections were obtained, it 
varies from one individual to another in general correlation with the amount 
of spray received from the Los Banos waterfall, but this is a very exceptional 
case. 
10. BOEHMERIA Jacq. 
2a. Boehmeria beyeri sp. nov. 
Arbuscula ramosa: dioica, glomerulis axillaribus, sessilibus ; floribus 
staminiferis tetrameris; perianthio pistillifero compresso-oblanceolato, 
apiee contracto, 4-dentato, extus substrigoso, ovarium multo superante: 
foliis alternis vel rarissime oppositis, valde inaequimagnis sed alternis 
haud valde reductis, aliis breviter petiolatis, ovatis, aliis mediocriter 
petiolatis, ellipticis, apice acute acuminatis, margine dentatis, trinerviis 
vel alter o minus conspicuo inter jecto. 
Dioecious : staminate glomerules axillary, sessile, 5 to 8 mm in diam- 
eter; bracteoles elliptic, 2.5 mm long, corniculate, slightly pilose at and 
103750 — — 6 
