53 



discovered outside the Philippine Islands. As no complete de- 

 scription of the species was published until very recently, previous 

 'authors have been justified in concluding, from the data and 

 material available, that Manila Elemi was probably secured from 

 Canarium commune Linn. The confusion of Idea ahilo Blanco as 

 the source or one of the sources of this product arose, not from a 

 lack of a knowledge of the Spanish language on the part of later 

 authors, as suggested by Tavera, but from the fact that one or two 

 American species, described in the same genus (Icica^Protium) 

 yield a substance similar in its properties to Manila Elemi; and 

 these later authors were justified in presuming Blanco's generic 

 identification for Idea ahilo to be correct and that a species growing 

 in the Philippines would be expected to yield products similar to 

 those of the American species of the same genus. Blanco, however, 

 does not credit his Idea ahilo as yielding Manila Elemi, and his 

 species, moreover, is not one of leica (Protium), but belongs to 

 the genus Garuga. 



From a careful examination of all data and material available, it 

 is evident that the source of the Manila Elemi of commerce is 

 Canarium luzonicum A. Gray, a species apparently closely related to 

 Canarium commune Linn. It is certainly the most common and 

 widely distributed species of Canarium in the Philippines and the 

 only one which yields in any quantity the pitch locally knoMTi as 

 "brea" or "brea blanca" and known in commerce as Manila Elemi. 

 The tree is commonly cultivated in cocoanut plantations in southern 

 Luzon. Considering the fact that there are now no less than 

 twenty-one species of the genus Canarium at present known from 

 the Philippines, the native names for this species are remarkably 

 constant, the standard native names "pili" or "pisa" rarely being 

 applied to species other than Canarium luzonicum. The synonomy 

 is as follows : 



Canarium luzonicum (Blume) A. Gray, Bot. Wilkes U. S. Explor. Exped. 

 374. 1854; Miq. Fl. Ind. Bat. 1 :pt. 2:651. 1850; Englor in DC. 

 Monog. Phan. 8:150. 1883; Pimcla Utzonica Blume, Mus. Bot. Lugd. 

 Bat. 1:220. 1849-51; Canarium album Blanco, FI. Filip. ed. 1, 

 793; ed. 2, 546. 1845; ed. 3, 3:201. 1879, non Raeusch.; Terehinthus 

 luzonis altera, Camell in Ray Hist. PI. 3: Appendix, 60. 1704; 

 Almendras 6 Piles, Mercado, Libro de Medic., etc., 25. 1880; Canarium 

 commune F.-Vill., Nov. App. 40. 1883, and other authors mentioned 

 above, jion Linn.; Canarium carapifolium Perkins, Frag. Fl. Philip. 

 92. 1904; Canarium indicum \Yight, Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb. 9:210. 

 1905, non Sticknian. 



