BY THE REV. J. E. TENISON-WOODS, F.G.S., &C. 723 



Genaro Palacios, gave strict orders to his subordinates to search 

 for any animal remains, and to preserve them with the greatest care, 

 but unfortunately no such fossils wex'e found. Vegetable remains, 

 however, were discovered in some abundance, consisting of trunks 

 of trees more or less perfectly silicified, and unmistakeable impres- 

 sions of leaves and branches. All the specimens were found to 

 belong to the existing flora, and Sefior Centeno adds, that in 

 connection with these fossils, not the faintest trace could be 

 identified as referable to the human period or rather, as he 

 expi'esses it, " to the hand of man." 



This however is a conclusion which is not borne out when the 

 fossils are attentively considered. Some of the leaves were those 

 of an introduced plant, that is to say, a cultivated plant not 

 belonging to the Philippine flora. The specimens enumerated are 

 some silicified trunks of Strehlus asper (Louriero). This is an 

 unarmed tree or shrub belonging to the mulberry section of the 

 XJrticacefe, originally described by Fr. Louriero, S. J., in his " Flora 

 of Cochin-China." There is but one species, which is confined to 

 tropical Asia, extending from Ceylon and the Indian Peninsula 

 to the Malay Achipelago, the Philippines, and Southern China. 

 There is nothing peculiar about this plant connecting it with the 

 wants of man, and it is never cultivated. It is common in the 

 Philippines, as far as my observation goes, and I have seen it also 

 as a small tree growing in Java. The silicification of the trunks of 

 these trees is no evidence of great antiquity. A few years will 

 sometimes completely petrify a trunk or a stem. There is a 

 specimen in the Brisbane Museum in which a fence rail 

 has been completely converted into flint, and in it there is a long 

 iron nail which is known to have been driven into the wood less than 

 40 years ago. 



Another plant which has been identified, is surrounded with a 

 considerable amount of interest. This is Psidium guayava, Raddi, 

 or the common guava so well known by its aromatic fruit in 

 tropical countries. Now this is undoubtedly a plant which does 

 not belong to the flora of the Philippines, and it has most certainly 

 been introduced into them by the hand of man. The home of the 



