THE PHILIPPINE 



Journal of Science 



C. Botany 



Vol. IV APRIL, 1909 No. 1 



THE FERNS OF THE MALAY-ASIATIC REGION. PART I. 



By Edwin Bingham Coimxand. 

 (From the Bureau of Education. Manila. P. /.) 



The fern flora of the Malay Archipelago is the richest in the world, 

 in species, in genera, and in families. In recent geological times this 

 region has evidently been a center for the diffusion of species, in every 

 direction in which no impassable barriers prevent it. The study of this 

 flora has therefore a very special bionomic interest; but a thorough 

 floristic study is an indispensable prerequisite to any valuable bionomic 

 work. I have devoted a number of years to this field, and am presenting 

 this "flora" in the expectation that it will make this work easier for others. 



In this Part I, including all familes except Ilymrnophyllaccar and Poh/- 

 podiaceae, the genera are almost all so striking in appearance that the 

 photograph of one species in each will permit their immediate recogni- 

 tion by a beginner. However, the subjects for the photographs have 

 been chosen from species the illustration of which will be useful to special- 

 ists in pteridology. 



The greater part of the material used in this work is in the herbarium 

 of the writer and in that of the Bureau of Science, in Manila. The 

 plants in these families in the Hongkong herbarium were kindly loaned 

 by the Director of that institution, Mr. S. T. Dunn; and the veteran 

 missionary and botanist, Urbain Faurie, of Aomori, Japan, has helped 

 me with his complete material in the same families. Grateful acknowl- 

 edgment is made to these gentlemen. 



While this part is in press, the large volume "Malayan Ferns" by 

 Captain C. P. W. K. van Alderwerelt van Poseburg came to hand. I am 

 fortunately still able to make such corrections in this paper as do not 

 break into paragraphs, and can therefore use van Alderwerelt's previously 

 unpublished information as to the range of various species. 



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