oe en 
THE PHILIPPINE JOURNAL OF SCIENCE, C. BOTANY. 
VoL. IX, No. 3, JUNE, 1914. 
THE GEOGRAPHIC DISTRIBUTION OF PHILIPPINE MOSSES 
° By C. B. ROBINSON 
(From the Botanical Section of the Biological Laboratory, Bureau of Science, 
Manila, P. I.) 
Practically all collections of Philippine bryophytes, through 
whose determination the literature on the subject has been com- 
piled, have been made by persons who themselves had made no 
special study of the groups concerned. Their interest, often 
none the loss keen, has been derived and twofold, in order that 
the flora of the Islands might more perfectly be ascertained, and 
that light might be thrown on various questions of more general 
application. 
Prolonged efforts, often of a highly intensive nature, have been 
made to solve problems relating to the higher groups of plants, 
and although those who are most closely in touch with this work 
realize perhaps better than any others how far this task is from 
completion, yet enough has been ascertained to permit a number 
of generalizations to be formulated with regard to the general 
relationships of the flora, so far as flowering plants and ferns 
are concerned. 
The Archipelago consists of a very large number of islands, 
the two largest, Luzon and Mindanao, respectively, the most 
northern and the most southern of the large islands, having 
each an area approximately that of the State of Kentucky, or 
slightly more than that of Holland, Belgium, and Switzerland, 
taken together. The islands of second rank form an irregular 
row between these two, with a westward extension, the area of 
Samar, the most eastern and the largest of these, being about 
one-eighth that of Luzon. North of Luzon are two groups of 
much smaller islands, the Batanes and Babuyanes, whose flora 
has been sufficiently investigated to show that it is typically 
Philippine, although Formosa is little more distant than the 
nearest point on Luzon. The Philippines link geographically 
with northeastern Borneo along two nearly parallel lines, one 
from southwestern Luzon through Mindoro, Palawan, Balabac, 
> Merrill, E. D. On a collection of plants from the Batanes and Babu- 
yanes Islands. Philip. Journ. Sci. 3 (1908) Bot. 385-442. 
199 
