PREFACE 



The object of the present work is to enumerate the known 

 species of flowering plants occurring in the Philippines; to ad- 

 just the synonymy; to account for all binomials accredited to 

 the Philippines in botanical literature; to give the most im- 

 portant literature references, especially to the special Philippine 

 publications and to the important extra-Philippine ones; to re- 

 cord the numerous local names for the various species; to give 

 the habitat, occurrence, altitudinal range, Philippine distribu- 

 tions, and approximate extra-Philippine distribution of each 

 species admitted; to cite illustrative specimens when necessary 

 or expedient, especially in critical groups; in brief, to sum- 

 marize in convenient form for consultation our present knowl- 

 edge of the Philippine flora. 



When publication of this work was commenced in 1921, it 

 was planned to issue it in three volumes, of four or five fascicles 

 each. As publication progressed, it was found necessary to 

 abandon the plan of issuing the work in three volumes and the 

 inclusion of the extensive introductory data in the prefatory part 

 of the present volume and to add a fourth volume to contain the 

 general introduction, bibliography, and indices to local and 

 scientific names. In the individual volumes of the actual enu- 

 meration merely brief indices have been included covering the 

 family and generic names that appear in each volume. Complete 

 indices to the entire work form a part of volume 4. 



In the arrangement of families and of genera the sequence in 

 general follows the Engler and Prantl system, but for con- 

 venience in indexing and in consulting the species have been 

 arranged alphabetically under their respective genera. While 

 an attempt has been made to compare the very numerous species 

 within each genus with each other and also with extra-Philippine 

 representatives of the same genera, so far as material has been 

 available, much critical work remains to be done; and future 

 studies must of necessity modify the enumeration, not only as 

 to the validity of numerous admitted species but also as to ques- 

 tions of synonymy and geographic distribution. It should be 

 remembered that most of the actual work has been accomplished 

 on the basis of the material and the literature available in Manila, 



