n INTRODUCTION. 



Of all the plants treated in this volume, perhaps the most interesting is 

 a species of the genus Archangioptcris belonging to the Marattiacere. The 

 genus was first found in Yunnan by Prof. A. HENRY. It was published in 

 1809 as a new genus by CHRIST and GIESENHAGEN, and the discovery was 

 vvidelv considered to be one of the most striking in the flora of East Asia. 

 Since I have been engaged in the study of the flora of Formosa, I have paid 

 special attention to this group of ferns and have been eagerly looking for 

 another member of this very rare and remarkable genus. Yet, my search was 

 unsuccessful, until late in the spring of this year I happened to examine a 

 curious looking plant labelled Gymnogramme japonica in the collection of Mr. 

 T. SOMA. On examining the plant carefully, to my great joy, I found it to 

 be a new species of Archangiopteris, for which I had for so long a time been 

 searching. The species is called A. Somai in honour of the gentleman who 

 collected it. Another remarkable novelty is the addition of two families, 

 Burmanniaceje and Xyridese, to the flora of Formosa. 



In the course of my studies in the preparation of this volume, I met 

 with a few cases where I found some confusion in determination of genera. 

 As this confusion is, in almost all cases, mainly due to the imperfect character 

 of the original descriptions or to the want of figures, I shall give the cases in 

 some detail as good examples to illustrate the necessity of full descriptions 

 and figures in the case of a new species or genus, as I explained at some length 

 in the introduction to the preceding volume. Among such examples, I may 

 mention Pseudixus which was published quite recently by myself as a new 

 genus of the Loranthacere, founded on a very common species formerly called 

 Viscum japonicum THUNH. Soon after publication, my attention was called to 

 the genus Bifaria of VAN TIEGHEM, by Mr. E. D. MERRILL of Manila and Mr. 

 T. SPRAGUE of Ivew. Pseudixus is apparently closely related to Bifaria in 

 having trimerous flowers and in the shape of the internodes. VAN TIEGHEM 



