Ot Fe) Sea 
x,.c3 Merrill: Botanical Exploration of the Philippines 167 
original vegetation of the island of St. Helena is a classical 
example that is known to most botanists, yet few botanists 
realize that the vegetation of immense areas in the Indo-Malayan 
region is now being destroyed or altered by much the same 
factors that were active in St. Helena. 
In preparing the accompanying map, which is intended as a 
graphic representation of the present status of botanical explora- 
tion in the Philippines, the round dots indicate those areas from 
which only casual collections have been received; that is, collec- 
tions made during hurried trips through the country, during 
stops of from a few hours to a few days in any particular place. 
Naturally collections made under such circumstances are far 
from exhaustive. In very many cases a dot indicates merely a 
small collection secured in a few hours’ time; very many of 
these areas are in the coastal region or in the settled areas. The 
parallel lines represent those areas in which intensive collection 
has been carried on for one month or more, but not during all 
months of the year; such areas, generally speaking, can be con- 
sidered fairly well known botanically. The few areas indicated 
by crosslines are those regions where botanical exploration has 
been fairly intensive, and where collections have been made 
during all months of the year, and these few areas are the only 
parts of the Philippines that can be considered as botanically 
well known. 
