36 SPECIES BLANCOANAE 
It is apparent that not all of the names recorded by Blanco 
were based on his own researches, but were copied from other 
authors, notably from the work of Clain.* 
THE EXSICCATA “SPECIES BLANCOANAE” 
In 1912 it occurred to me that, as Blanco preserved no botan- 
ical material, the preparation of an exsiccata to consist of speci- 
. mens that should represent the various species described by 
him, as these were understood by me after long experience in 
the field and a critical study of each individual description, would 
be very desirable. It was realized that the distribution of such 
an exsiccata to the larger botanical institutions would do much 
to fix the status of Blanco’s species, provided the work of selec- 
tion was critically done. By reference to the actual specimens 
other botanists would be able to check my conclusions and deter- 
mine individually the status and relationships of the various 
species, and the correctness or error in my conclusions in those 
cases where there is a reasonable cause for difference in opinion 
either in my interpretations of Blanco’s species or those of other _ 
authors where reductions have been made. In other words a 
critically prepared exsiccata would supply a fairly dependable 
series of specimens that to a large degree would take the place 
of Blanco’s “types” which were never preserved. 
In accordance with thisidea it was decided to prepare an 
exsiccata of sixteen sets, to be distributed to a selected list of 
botanical institutions in various countries, so that the specimens 
would become generally available to botanists concerned with 
the problems associated with the Indo-Malayan and Philippine 
floras, and with the preparation of monographs or revisions 
of various natural groups of plants. For this exsiccata the title 
“Species Blancoanae” was selected. 
In assembling material for this exsiccata, which contains more 
than 16,900 specimens, the original idea was to include only 
those species described by Blanco as new, and those interpreted | 
by Blanco under binomials of other authors where the actual 
plant described by Blanco did not pertain to the binomial under. 
which it was placed. As the work progressed it became evident 
that the plan must be modified as it was discovered that in some 
cases Blanco’s descriptions of species of older authors, where 
the species had been correctly interpreted by him, had been 
made the basis of new binomials. The plan was then changed 
*Clain, P. Remedios faciles para diferentes enfermedades (1712). 1-298. 
I have not seen the original edition of this work, but a second edition was — 
published in Manila in 1857, pp. XXXI + 1-638, index. 
