II IXTUODUCTIOX. 



Of all tlic i)lauts trcated in tliis vuliuue, iicrluiiis tlic inost intL-resting is 

 a spccies of the geuus ArcJianf/iojjfcris belouging to tlie Mara tt iaceiv. The 

 geuus was tirst found iu Yiuinau by Prof. A. Hkkry. It was |>ublishe(l in 

 1899 as a new genus }>y Christ aud Giesexhagex, and the discovery^ was 

 widely considered to bc onc of the most sti-iking in the flora of East Asia. 

 Since I havc been engaged iii thc study of the tlora of Forniosa, I have j^aid 

 sj^ecial atteutiou to this group of fcrus and havc l)ccu cagerly looking for 

 another meuiljcr of this vcry rare and remarlcablc genus. Yet, my search was 

 unsucccssful, uutil late in the spring of this j'ear I happcncd to examiuc a 

 curious lookiug plant labdled Gi/rnnoc/rcrimnc jcqjonica in thc Cdllcctiou ofMr. 

 T. SoMA. Ou examiuing thc plaut carcfully, to uiy great Joy, I found it tu 

 be a new specics of Archangiopteris, for which I liad for so long a time been 

 searching. The speoies is called A. Somai in honour of the gentleman wlio 

 collected it. Anotlicr remarkable uovclty is thc addition of two farailics, 

 Buruiauniacere aud Xyridcic, to the tlora of Formosa. 



lu the coursc of iny .studies iu the preiiaration uf this volumc, I mct 

 with a few cases wherc I found some confusiou iu determinatiuu of gencra. 

 As this confitsion is, iu almost all cases, inainly duc tt-) thc impcrfect charactcr 

 of the origiual dcscriptions or to the want of figure'<, I shall givc thc casas iii 

 somc dctail as good cxamples to illustrate thc nccessity of full dcscriptions 

 aud figures iu thc case of a ncw siiecies or geuus, as I explained at some length 

 iu the iutroduction to thc iireceding volumc. Among such cxaraples, I may 

 incntion Pseudixus which was indjlishcd quitc rcccntly l>y uiyself as a new 

 geuus of the Loranthaccic, fouudcd on a vcry common s^iecics formcrly callctl 

 Viscwin japonicicm Thuni;. Soou after publication, my attcution was callcd to 

 thc gcnus Bifaria of Van Tiegheji, by Mr. E. D. Merrill of Manila and Mr. 

 T. SrRAGUE of Kew. Pscudixus is apj)areatly closely related to Bifaria ii» 

 liaving trimerous flowcrs and in the shaiie of the internodcs. Yax Tieghem 



