FLORA OF THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS. 303 



a veritable mountain flora ia found, including several species of 

 Ericaceae and Vaccineae. Gunnera macrophylla, Blume, hitherto 

 known only from Java and Sumatra, has recently been dis- 

 covered, occupying a considerable area at the extreme summit of 

 the extinct volcano of Banahao. Herbaceous plants are tolerably 

 numerous, a few Orders (as Cyrtandraceas) having a consider- 

 able proportion of endemic species, but for the most part consist- 

 ing of widely diffused plants. To these may be added a few mere 

 weeds of cultivation, and accideiitally introduced plants. Argt- 

 mone mevicana, L., is now a great pest. Muntingia Calabura, L., 

 an American plant of recent introduction, is now spreading 

 rapidly. Dalea nigra, Mart, et Gal., is a Mexican plant, now 

 very abundant. This plant is probably an introduction of very 

 ancient date, brought by shipping at the time when Spain an- 

 nually sent ships direct from Mexico to the Philippine Islands, 

 more than one of which was captured by English sea-captains 

 in those disturbed times. Prosopis juliflora, DC., occupies a 

 large area round the Bay of Manila, but is evidently an Ameri- 

 can introduction, although nothing is known of it except that it 

 is now so abundant as to appear truly indigenous. Carica Papaya, 

 L., is an American introduction of the 17th century. There are 

 also several other American plants, of which all traces of the 

 introduction are completely lost, besides a number of plants of 

 yet older introduction. Before the islands were taken posses- 

 sion of by the Spaniards, successive- Malayan invasions took 

 place, and with these were introduced many of the fruit-bearing 

 trees and other plants which are universally cultivated through- 

 out the whole Malayan Archipelago. 



The more characteristic features of the flora have now been 

 traced ; and it remains to be seen how far this will help us in 

 arriving at its origin and in tracing the past history of the islands. 

 It is probable that during the period while the present genera 

 were becoming differentiated, a cousiderable portion of the islands 

 was under water. The fact that nearly all the genera have their 

 headquarters to the south and south-west, as well as the absence 

 of such a large number of typical Malayan genera, both point to 

 the fact that the flora did not originate where it now exists, but 

 reached its present location by migration northward. The paucity 

 of endemic genera also tends to confirm this view. Whether 

 previous to this period the Philippines formed part of the great 



