Ill 



plants, ferns, mosses, and lichens, besides fungi and seaweeds not 

 included in the above total. The greatest interest attaches to 

 those from Benguet in Luzon, and Mt. Apo in Mindanao, both 

 high levels, the recent discoveries from which have changed our 

 ideas of this flora, through the large semi-temperate element 

 found there. 



The Philippines have long been noted for the unusually large 

 proportion of plants which grow nowhere else, though the 

 Augustinians signally failed to recognize this. Outside of 

 Luzon exploration is still in its infancy, and even there many 

 promising localities are still unvisited, and much time must yet 



Elevation seems to be the most important factor in regulating 

 geographical distribution. The strand flora is nearly the same 

 everywhere, as is usual in the tropics ; that of levels below about 

 3,000 feet is tropical, with a strong general resemblance to that of 

 the Malayan islands ; while on the mountains the vegetation is 

 most similar to that of western and southern China and Formosa. 

 Connecting links with Bornean plants are strangely few, these 

 mostly from Mindanao, but this is at least partly due to our 

 almost total ignorance of Paragua, the animals of which are more 

 like those of Borneo than the Philippines. A few important 

 affinities with Australia have long been known, though two of 



been found with Celebes. 



The summaries of Fernandez-Villar and Rolfe are as follows : 



THese figures are very much of an estimate ; they represe 

 the knowledge of over twenty years ago, since which time at lei 

 five hundred new species have been described, and others fou: 

 already known from other countries. The number of famili 

 now credibly recorded is 1 80, on the Engler and Prantl bas 



