240 OUTLINE OF PLANT GEOGRAPHY 



A few pitcher plants were noted, but the most striking feature 

 of this high mountain region was the abundance of beautiful 

 flowers, which at the time of the writer's visit, the end of May, were 

 in their fullest bloom. Many remarkably handsome orchids were 

 abundant, including several species of Dendrobium, Coelogyne, and 

 Cypripedium. The beautiful Philippine lily (Lilium Philip- 

 pic use), displayed its big white trumpets by hundreds, and great 

 bushes of azalea and rhododendron were covered with white and 

 red flowers, while thickets of pink Begonias as high as one's head, 

 grew in profusion. Pink Medinillas hung from the branches 

 of the trees, and on the ground were many familiar looking, but 

 less showy things. Several species of raspberries, strawberry, 

 violet, buttercups, a large white anemone, lobelia, and everlasting 

 (Gnaphalium) recalled the summit of the Gedeh in Java, and one 

 noted also the white-fruited wintergreen (Gaultheria), and species 

 of Vaccinium, like those of the Gedeh. Other northern types were 

 an elder, and a dwarf chestnut (Castanopsis), the latter having 

 a representative in the Pacific forest of North America. 



Peppers, myrtles (Eugenia spp.) and Begonias, as well as the 

 orchids and pitcher plants are more reminiscent of the tropical 

 forests of the lower elevations. A member of the Magnolia family, 

 Drimys piperita, is interesting as the genus is also characteristic 

 of New Zealand and temperate South America. 



Club-mosses, species of Lycopodium, both terrestrial and 

 epiphytic, are abundant, and the species are the same as on the 

 Gedeh in Java, and include the wide-spread boreal species, L. 

 clavatum and L. complanatum. 



The Philippines, lying to the east of Wallace's line, combine 

 in their flora elements derived on the one hand from the great 

 Sunda Islands, and on the other from eastern Malaya and Aus- 

 tralia. 1 Thus of the 356 genera peculiar to western Malaya, the 

 Philippines possess 61%, while of the 225 genera of eastern Malaya, 

 absent from the region west of Wallace's line, the Philippines show 

 25%. It is evident then, that the relationships are much more 

 intimate between the flora of the Philippines, and that of the 

 Sunda Islands, than with the more scattered islands to the south 

 and east through which the eastern Malayan and Australian 

 elements have presumably migrated into the Philippines. 



1 Merrill, loc. cit. 



