ALABASTRA PHILIPPINENSIA, III. 
351 
be endemic in these Islands. It may be distinguished from E. squamifera by its 
longer petioles, more acute leaf-bases, wider-branching inflorescence, and the color 
of the flowers; from E. xanthophylla by the longer petioles, more coriaceous and 
usually larger leaves, wider-branching inflorescence, and the color of the flowers; 
from E. sulcistyla by the wider and different inflorescence, differently shaped 
buds, and the somewhat longer petioles. The wood is utilized commercially. 
Local names : macaasin, malayambo. 
LEPTOSPERMUM J. R. & G. Forst. 32 
When originally published, this genus contained 7 species, L. scandens, L. 
collinum, L. ciliatum, L. perforatum, L. leucadendron, L. scoparium, and L. 
virgatum, the first five forming a section Gallistemones, the remaining two a 
section unnamed. The first four are to-day placed in the genus Metrosideros 
Banks ex Gaertn. 33 The fifth species was based on Melaleuca leucadendra Linn., 
although as the Kew Index states it to be equivalent to L. flavescens and 
L. pubescens, there may have been a mixture of herbarium material, of which 
a wrong identification had been made. Only the sixth is now considered to be 
a Leptospermum, the seventh being a Baeclcea. 
What the Forsters intended in founding this genus is open to conjecture, as 
they presumably considered all of their seven species to be congeneric, and yet 
they included amongst them Melaleuca leucadendra Linn., the only species 
placed by Linnaeus in Melaleuca, 3 * no other having been published therein during 
the intervening nine years. Apparently, Leptospermum was brought forward 
as a substitute name for Melaleuca, and color is given to this view by the 
fact that the younger Forster subsequently transferred all seven species to the 
latter. If this view be rejected, the type of Leptospermum would seem to be 
L. scandens, which is both the first species described and the first figured; 
L. scoparium, which alone belongs to the genus as at present interpreted, being 
the sixth described and the second figured. On this view, Leptospermum would 
become a synonym of, or rather an older name for Metrosideros. The Brussels 
Congress is believed here to have ruled in favor of the latter over Nani Adans.,* 5 
a still older name, but there is still no international legislation to cover such 
cases as that of Leptospermum, or even the still worse ones, where additions and 
subtractions have left a genus without any of the species ascribed to it by its 
original author. 
MELASTOMATACEAE. 
M EDI N I LLA Gaudicli. 
Medinilla disparifolia sp. nov. 
Scandens, ramis teretibus, ultimis hirsutis: inflorescentiis brevibus in 
foliorum infimorum axillis vel in ramis; floribus admodum congestis, 
tetrameris : foliis oppositis, dimorphis, petiolatis, elliptico-obovatis, mag- 
nisque, vel sessilibus, late ovatis, parvisque, 11- vel 13-plinerviis. 
Inflorescences about 3 cm long, in the axils of the lowest leaves or 
beneath them, the peduncle about 1 cm long at the base with dense 
32 Char. Gen. PI. (1776) 47, 48, pi. 36. 
33 Fruct. 1 (1788) 170, pi. 31 t . 
31 Mant. (1767) 14. 
31 Fam. PI. 2 ( 1763) 88. 581. 
