FLOBA OF THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS. 285 



abound in species, the large genus Cochlostyla is almost peculiar 

 to the Philippines, and Pfeifferia is found also in the Moluccas. 

 These facts are interesting as showing the affinities with sur- 

 rounding countries and the large proportion of endemic species. 



Mr. "Wallace has somewhere remarked that the flora is not suf- 

 ficiently well known for comparison. Since that time, however 

 a considerable addition has been made to our knowledge. The 

 ' Novissima Appendix,' containing an enumeration of what is 

 known of the flora, with a census of genera and species under 

 each Order (published in the fourth volume of the third edition of 

 Blanco's ' Flora de Filipinas '), the ' Sinopsis de Familias y G-ene os 

 de Plantas Lenosas de Filipinas' (a work containing figures of no 

 less than 465 species of 386 genera), by Don Sebastian Vidal, 

 Conservator of Forests in the Philippines, and a collection of 

 about 900 species of plants received at Kew, from the author of 

 the last-named work, have all contributed largely to our know- 

 ledge. The 468 coloured plates accompanying the third edition 

 of Blanco's work must also be taken into account, though a con- 

 siderable proportion of them represent cultivated plants. It is 

 in working up the aforementioned collection, in conjunction with 

 Don Sebastian Vidal, that a large proportion of the data have 

 been accumulated on which the present paper is based, and which 

 I now offer to the Linnean Society as a brief outline of the flora 

 of the islands. I am specially indebted to Don Sebastian Vidal 

 for a large amount of information respecting the islands generally, 

 and their vegetation in particular. 



The first paper of any importance on the flora of the Philip- 

 pines appeared as early as 1704, as an Appendix to the third 

 volume of Kay's ' Historia Plantarum.' It is entitled " Herbarium 

 aliarumque Stirpium in Insula Luzone Philippinai um primaria 

 nascentium, a Rev do Patre Georgio Josepho Camello, S.J., 

 Observatum et Descriptarum Syllabus: ad Joannem Eaium 

 transmissus; Additis etiam plurimarum Iconibus, ab auctore 

 propria manu ad vivum delineatis ; quas ob sumptum in chalco- 

 graphos erogandorum defectum impraesentiarum emittere non 

 licuit." This work occupies 96 folio pages, and contains descrip- 

 tions of a large number of plants, with their native names. 

 Linnjeus appears to have overlooked it, and indeed every one 

 else, as I cannot find that anything has been done with it up to 

 the present time. The drawings, however, exist, and a consider- 

 able number of the plants, both being preserved in the Sloane 



