146 MERRILL. 
in a southwesterly direction to the town of Paranaque on Manila 
Bay south of Manila. > 
Practically the entire area occupied by the city of Manila ■ 
consists of an alluvial plain, for the most part located but little 
above the limits of high tide. This plain is divided by the Pasig 
River and some of its tributaries, the smaller tidal streams ' ^ 
being locally known as esteros. Undoubtedly the greater part 
of the area now occupied by the city was originally a mangrove 
swamp; but with the extension of the town the low places have 
been graded, and the original mangrove vegetation destroyed. 
Vestiges of this original vegetation still remain along some of 
the esteros; and at Malabon, just north of the city, the mangrove 
vegetation is rather conspicuous in places. 
The word Manila itself is generally assumed to have been 
derived from nilad or nilar, one of the Tagalog names for a 
mangrove tree, Scyphyphora hydrophyllacea Gaertn. {Rubia- 
ceae) , The prefix ma means "where is," so that the word Manila 
signifies the place where nilar grows. Whether or not this 
theory is correct the species is no longer to be found in or 
near Manila, although it is sufficiently abundant in other parts 
of the Archipelago. 
Within the area covered by the "Flora of Manila," and the 
region on which the present paper is based, there are a number 
of low hills, none of which exceed an altitude of 50 meters. 
They consist of water-laid tuff, with usually a thin covering of 
poor clayey or gravelly soil. These hills occur in limited areas 
within the city limits, but are much more numerous inland. 
There are, then, only two geological formations, the alluvial 
plain and the low hills of water-laid tuff with their thin cover- 
ing of poor soil. By far the greater part of the area under 
consideration consists of waste places, cultivated and fallow 
fields, and thickets. In restricted areas we have the strand 
formation occurring along the sandy shores of Manila Bay ; the 
vestiges of mangrove swamps along tidal streams and muddy 
shores; and swampy areas with fresh water, brackish water, 
and salt water. 
The entire area under consideration, so far as its vegetation 
is concerned, has been profoundly altered by the presence of 
man, and at no place near the city do conditions at all approach- 
ing primeval ones exist. The original vegetation has been almost 
entirely destroyed, for presumably the present location of the 
City of Manila was for the most part covered with mangrove 
forests, as noted above, while the dry hills undoubtedly sup- 
