1 56 RIDLEY. 



Geocharis and Lowia, and, except a,s introduced plants, Curcuma, Kacmp- 

 feria and Phaeomeria. 



Some notes on the distribution of the sections of the genera represented 

 may be of interest. It is noticeable that in the genus Globba nearly all 

 the species are white-flowered with but few yellow, while in India and 

 the Malay Peninsula yellow-flowered ones predominate. In Borneo yellow 

 ones become rare and white preponderate, and this is further accentuated 

 in the Philippines. Hedychium is a genus of two groups, the terrestrial 

 ones whose headquarters is in India, and the epiphytic ones of the 

 tropical forests from Sumatra and the Malay Peninsula to the Philip- 

 pines. //. roronarium. the only terrestrial species in the Philippines, is 

 widely distributed throughout the eastern islands, but perhaps only in- 

 troduced from the west. Zingiber is one of the genera of which her- 

 barium specimens, unless specially carefully prepared and selected, are 

 generally unidentifiable. It is usually necessary to take the flowers from 

 the water-saturated spike and dry them separately in the field, as they 

 perish or become unrecognizable often before one reaches camp. It is 

 therefore often difficult to get a clear idea of the number of species and 

 their relationships when one has to deal with material dried roughly 

 and without special preparation, such as is found in ordinary collections. 

 Hornstedtia is abundant in the Malay Peninsula, and in Sumatra, Borneo 

 and Java; it thins out towards New Guinea, and as yet but two species 

 have been found in the Philippines. A mom ion does not appear to be 

 strongly represented, but as these plants are often not very free-flowered 

 we shall probably get more species later as collecting goes on. Two of 

 the species described by Schumann under the section Bintalua appear 

 from the descriptions to be species of Plagiostachys. 



Plagiostackyg, a genus of but few known species, seems to be better 

 represented here than elsewhere, as there appear to be three Philippine 

 species. It ranges from the Malay Peninsula eastwards. Costus. 

 typically an American genus, is represented by a few species in the East 

 Indies, and in the Philippines by two, one widely distributed throughout 

 the East, another endemic and allied to a Malayan species. Aipinia is 

 the most strongly represented genus in the Philippines; it is a typical 

 eastern Asiatic one, ranging to Japan and Polynesia, beyond the region 

 of most of the tropical Asiatic genera. 



The Marantacew all belong to Malayan genera and are all allied to 

 species of the Malay Peninsula except the endemic genus Monopbrynium. 

 The Gannacedk are represented only by introduced species. Lowiacem 

 are absent. The MtlMCQCB are represented by the introduced Ravenala 

 madagaicarienni, some distinct species of Musa, and many forms of 

 Musa sapientum Linn, and M. paradisiaca Linn. Material in this group 

 has not as yet been collected by the American botanists, and there are 

 no specimens in the collection sent to me. 



