164 ‘The Philippine Journal of Science il 
contains much of special interest from a botanical standpoint, 
while vegetation of the settled areas consists chiefly of widely 
distributed and well-known species. 
The Philippine flora, as a whole, is rather remarkable for its 
relatively high percentage of endemism. Somewhat over 40 per 
cent of all the species known from the Archipelago are confined 
to the group. However, this high percentage of endemism is 
found in the forested areas, not in the settled regions, the country 
covered with open grassland, or in the second-growth forest. 
The flora of the vicinity of Manila, a region presenting the 
characteristic vegetation of the settled areas at low altitudes, 
and a region where the original vegetation has been entirely 
destroyed, may be taken as fairly representative of the entire 
open country and settled areas at low altitudes in the Philippines. 
Most of the species found in and about Manila are of wide dis- 
tribution in the Philippines in similar habitats, while in most 
settled areas in the Philippines at low altitudes there are but few 
species not found in or about Manila. The endemism of the 
Manila flora does not exceed 12 per cent. In the virgin forest 
the percentage of endemism approximates 60 per cent, and in 
some regions is probably higher than this. Over 80 per cent of 
the species found in and about Manila, a region characterized 
by the entire absence of any type of vegetation approaching 
virgin forest, extend to tropical Asia and the Malay Archipelago, 
and are likewise widely distributed throughout the Philippines. 
It is manifest, then, that all collectors should avoid intensive ex- 
ploration of the settled areas, the open grassland, the costal 
regions, the cultivated areas, and to a large degree the regions 
covered with second-growth forest, and should devote as much 
time as possible to the vegetation of the virgin forest and to 
that of higher altitudes. 
In considering the question of botanical exploration in the Phil- 
ippines, it may be said that a few months of intensive work will 
in no case yield a complete representation of all the species found 
in a certain area. The reason is that, like most all tropical 
countries, the Philippines present, as to anthesis, a continuous 
sequence of species in all months of the year. Hence, thoroughly 
to explore any given area the collection of botanical material 
must be intensive and must be prosecuted in all months of the 
year. Even then, especially in the densely forested regions, it 
is physically impossible to locate all the different species, and 
the discovery of a certain form in flower or in fruit is frequently 
merely a matter of chance. The great size of the trees, the 
