FOURTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT 5 



other branch of the Government to have built up a general her- 

 barium or to have given much attention to systematic work. 

 However, little work had been done. There was, and is now, 

 except in the Bureau of Science, absolutely no institution in the 

 world where Philippine Islands specimens could be sent for iden- 

 tification, yet classification and accurate identification of material 

 must precede all economic investigations. The material in the 

 Bureau of Science herbarium has been used in the classification 

 and identification of the classes of economic plants enumerated 

 above and of all other known Philippine species. Groups 

 of plants that are known to be of no economic value, such as 

 ferns, mosses, lichens, orchids, etc., are not studied by the em- 

 ployees of the Bureau of Science. All plants of a country, except 

 those of such groups, must be studied, else many economic plants 

 would not be collected and identified. To work solely on plants 

 known to be of economic value would be analogous to compiling 

 a city directory and including only the names of persons who 

 were of value to the city. The fact that a plant is related to 

 another, known to yield a valuable product, may lead to the 

 discovery of a new economic source of that product. 



The publication of the results of the study of a collection is as 

 important as its formation. The actual as well as scientific 

 value of any collection is potential until the specimens have been 

 identified by specialists and have become the data upon which 

 systematic reports are based. The most valuable specimens 

 in any collection are the "types." A type is the specimen selected 

 by an author to represent a new species described by him. He 

 may have any number of specimens before him, but he should 

 draw his description from a single specimen which he should 

 designate as "type." In the best taxonomic work of the present 

 time the collection serial number of the type and other data 

 sendng to locate it are given. Types add to the value of a 

 collection not only because they are the best possible means 

 of identifying other specimens, but also because a type is unique 

 and, therefore, beyond price. The value of a collection is being 

 continually enhanced in the hands of a man who compares his 

 specimens with original descriptions and with the types or 

 cotypes and describes and publishes the new species and genera 

 he finds and records new facts in the distribution of known 

 species. On the other hand, the identical collection cared for 

 by a man who does no more than sort the specimens into their 

 families or genera rapidly decreases in value because the percent- 

 age of types and historical material rapidly decreases. The 

 increase in value of a specimen that has been compared with 



