PREFACE 5 
brought the knowledge of the plants in the Islands into such a 
shape as to make it readily accessible to workers in botany. This 
together with the advantages of being able to consult him in 
doubtful cases, may be truly said to have made possible the 
appearance of this or any other general work on Philippine 
plants. The Bureau of Forestry is pleased to take this occasion 
to publicly acknowledge their indebtedness to Mr. Merrill for 
the scientific classification of the miscellaneous, useful plants 
and timber trees, and for much other assistance which he has 
rendered to the Bureau. 
The spelling of the native names throughout this work has 
been revised and made uniform by Mr. E. E. Schneider of the 
Bureau of Forestry, who is well acquainted with several Philip- 
pine languages. Mr. Schneider has also collected much informa- 
tion, and owing to his continued interest has been of great as- 
sistance. In preparing the sections on bamboos and mangrove 
swamps we have made considerable use of information gathered 
by Dr. F. W. Foxworthy, particularly of records of growth and 
planting. For all of the above assistance I desire here to express 
my grateful appreciation. 
_ WILLIAM H. BROWN. 
