300 ME. B. A. BOLFE ON THE 



Ceylon, and India ; while, on the other hand, a large number of 

 species which are scattered about the Malayan Islands do not 

 reach India. 



Besides a number of species mentioned earlier in this paper, 

 the connection between China and Formosa and the tropical 

 Malayan Islands by way of the Philippines is supported by 

 Alsophila tomentosa, Hook., and Polypodium lomarioides, Kunze, 

 which occur in Formosa on the one hand and in the Malay 

 Islands on the other, the former limited to Java in the south. 

 There are also several species which are scattered about the 

 Polynesian Islands, occurring both in Java and the Philippines, 

 but not found further westward. 



So little is known of a considerable number of the islands that 

 little can be said of them individually, but from what few indi- 

 cations we have it may safely be inferred that many interesting 

 problems of distribution will yet come to light. The Sulu 

 Archipelago, the islands between Mindanao and Celebes, also the 

 islands of Balabac and Palawan, are all likely to yield connecting 

 links with Celebes and Borneo. Between Luzon and Formosa 

 the islands are so small that the connecting links are less likely 

 to have survived the changes which must have taken place since 

 the period when the migration southward occurred — probably 

 during the cold of the Glacial Epoch. Mindanao has the highest 

 mountain in the group, the volcano of Apo reaching to over 

 8000 feet. Xantlwstemon Verdugonianus, Naves, and Ggrinopsis 

 Cumingiana, BYcne., are endemic here ; while Leptospermum jtaoe- 

 scens, Sm., and Leucopogon suaveolens, Hook, f., are not known 

 from further north. 



Leyte is separated from Mindanao by the Surigao Straits ; it 

 is about a twelfth as large as Luzon. Cuming collected some 

 plants here, of which Ilex philippinensis, Melastoma pencillatum, 

 Naud., and Osmelia conferta, Benth., have not yet been found 

 elsewhere. Samar lies to the east, a little north, and is slightly 

 larger than Leyte ; it is separated from it by the very narrow 

 San Juanico Straits, while the San Bernardino Straits separate it 

 from the southern point of Luzon. Of the plants collected here 

 by Cuming, Greivia eriopoda, Turcz., Begonia quercifolia, A. DC, 

 Osmelia philippitiensis, Benth., Buchanania nitida, Engl., Lepi- 

 dagathis laxa, Nees, Dracont&melum Cumingianum, Baill., and 

 Cyclostemon Cumingii, Baill., are only as yet known from Samar. 



