INTRODUCTION. 



Tlio present volume is the teutli of the series, and the cUite of its publi- 

 cation is the tenth anniversary of the inception of the work which the series 

 -describes. It seems, therefore, that a few words as to the nature of the whole 

 work and of the results obtained in the course of it, may not be out of place. 

 The original plan, as explained in the introduction to the first volume, was 

 to publish in a long series, extending it might be over as many as fifteen 

 years, a flora which should contain full descriptions of all plants found 

 in Formosa. That plan, however, was slightly altered even in the first 

 volume, owing to the necessity of limiting in advance the number of pages so 

 as not to exceed the grant made by the Government. That first portion of 

 the work contains an enumeration of plants, with descriptions of new or 

 noteworthy plants, references to species (as far as accessible), and a key 

 to the families, genera and species with their respective localities and geo- 

 graphical distributions. It had been my intention to pursue this altered plan 

 in the case of the second volume ; but owing to a further reduction of the 

 grant, I was compelled to cut out ueary all references to species. Descriptions 

 were given only in the case of plants which were new or of which I had not 

 found adequate descriptions. Thus, in the first sud second volumes, I treated 

 all Formosaii plants, so far as known to us up to that time, belonging to 

 families from the liauuiiculaceae to the Dipsacea. 1 . In the third volume, it was 

 my desire to treat the remaining families so as to complete the flora in the 

 rather compact form of a conspectus. But, then the new materials with which 

 I had been loaded down since 1910, and especially two collections made by 

 myself in my two excursions to the island (in 1912) had become so numerous 

 that it had required my whole time to work up even the first part of them, and 

 tliat had compelled me to put off, for some years, the continuation of the con- 

 spectus which made up the first and second volumes. The third and following- 

 volumes were, therefore, devoted almost exclusively to the results of studies of 

 the materials which had been worked up since 1911. These were given con- 

 tinuously under the heading, " Contributions to the Flora of Formosa, I. II. etc." 



The present volume gives the last part of the contributions and contains 

 studies on species and varieties ranging from the Violacese down to the Poly- 

 podiacese. All the species of phanerogamous plants are here arranged, as in 

 the preceding volumes, after the system of BENTHAM and HOOKER, while those 



