A Summary of our Present Knowledge of the Ferns of the Philippines 
By Lucren Marcus UNDERWOOD 
Linnaeus included a single fern from the Philippines in the 
first edition of his Species Plantarum. This was called Adiantum 
Philippense and was based on a figure of Petiver, who seems to be 
the sole authority for the source of the fern. Hooker referred 
the plant with some hesitation to A. caudatum, which appears to 
be a common species in the islands. The early European travelers 
collected a few ferns in the Philippines, some of which were de- 
scribed by Cavanilles early in the last century ; the types of these 
Species are presumably at Madrid. Chamisso included the Philip- 
pines in his travels and Kaulfuss described several Philippine ferns 
in his Exumeratio (1824). Presl described a number collected by 
Thaddeus Haenke and by Née in his Religuiae Haenkeanae (1830) 
and others still from the same collectors in Epimeliae Botanicae 
(1849). Gaudichaud also visited Luzon and collected a few spe- 
cies. It was not, however, until 1836-40 that any considerable 
collection was made in the islands, when Hugh Cuming, an English 
botanical traveler, visited the Philippines and brought back an ex- 
tensive collection of ferns which were studied by John Smith, of 
Kew Gardens. Smith published a list of these ferns * which in- 
cluded 297 species, of which he estimated that 100 were new to 
science. He gave names to his new species but they remained 
nomina nuda until they were described in part by Hooker in Sfe- 
cies Filicum (1844-1866), and in part by Presl in his Hymenophyi-. 
laceae (1843) and in his Epimeliae Botanicae (1849) and other 
works. The types of these species are therefore divided between 
the Royal Herbarium at Kew and the herbarium of the Deutsches 
Botanisches Institut at Prague. The most complete series of Cum- 
ing’s collections is at Kew, but extensive duplicate series exist in 
other herbaria. The types of Haenke’s collections are at Prague, 
where Presl’s rich fern collection exists, unmounted, just as its 
* Smith, Solis Rounetalia Filicum Philippinarom. Joue, Bot. 3% 392-422. 1841. 
665 
