PTERIDOPHYTA HALCONENSES. 121 
with these should be mentioned Lomaria Fraseri of New Zealand and 
^ central and northern Luzon. However, the range extensions are mostly 
in the direction that I have already shown to be the general one of 
L migration^; that is, towards the north. Shorter steps of this kind are 
those of Diplazmm Palatianense and Gleichenia dicarpa^ known previously 
from Palawan, Monogramme darececarpa and Polypodium tenuisectum 
from Negros, and P. inoUicomnm and P. Yoderi from Panay. A con- 
siderable number of ferns, Monacliosorum, Oleandra Whitmeeij Diplaziop- 
sis, Blechnun vestituvi, Plagiogyria Christii, Acrosorus (represented by 
a new species), Polypodium Celehicum and Dicksonia chrisotricha are 
hero found for the first time north of ]\Iindanao. With these notable 
■ 
internal extensions of range, it is rather striking, even when we remember 
tliat Halcon is near the center of the Archipelago, to find in this collection 
only eight additions to our flora, of plants already known elsewhere. Of 
these eight plants^ two are cosmopolitan, and all are Malayan. Another 
factor in the present state of our knowledge is that here, as in Mindanao, 
the Celebes element seems to dominate over the Bornean; yet Mindoro 
\ is connected with Borneo through the Calamianes Islands, Palawan and 
Balabac, with only insignificant gaps, and Mr. Merrill believes that 
Halcon geologically is similar to Mount Kinabalu in north Borneo, it 
being a mass granite, marble, white quartz and with some schist-like 
rock. However this may be, the only Halcon fern in the collectioD 
AA^hich is apparently of Bornean origin is Ophioglossum intermedium. 
While we are receiving the congratulations of our European friends 
and sometimes congratulating ourselves on the present progress in local 
pteridology, we must not forget that the picture we are painting is still 
almost wholly canvas. We know perhaps most of the ferns growing 
near one trail up Apo, one trail up Halcon, and we know som.ething 
of the fern flora of Santo Tomas and Data in northern Luzon, and of the 
high plateau country between the two latter mountains. Of Malindang 
in Mindanao, Canlaon in Negros, Madiaas in Panay, and Banajao in 
+ 
central Luzon, all near 2,400 meters in altitude or higlicr, we know es- 
sentially nothing, having some half-dozen ferns from each. The highest 
mountain in northern Luzon has never been climbed by a botanist or a 
collector, nor has the second, Bulusan, neither have Malaya, nor Soils, 
nor any mountain of the high and extensive eastern Cordillera. The same 
is true of the high peaks of southern Luzon, of all mountains of Samar, 
of the high eastern range of ]\Iindanao, of Eoosevelt, Apo's great neighbor, 
and of the highest peak in Palawan. Yet it is on these great mountains, 
not on their summits, but on their large areas at intermediate elevations, 
that our fern vegetation reaches its most luxuriant development. Ex- 
ploration has obviously not reached the point where statements as to 
inter-island range have more than a temporary interest. 
^ This Journal Botany (1907) 2: 3-10. 
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