6 MONOCOTYLEDONEJ. 
cies only; but this possibility does not invalidate the fact of the nar- 
row distribution of each form. 
S 3. EXTENT OF THE TRIBE. 
The Cyrtandraceæ of DC. Prodr., 9, excluding those now redu- 
ced, comprise 22 genera and 132 species. In the present Monograph 
are described 41 genera and 460 species, of which one half are new, 
or reformed with new names. The new species are largely derived 
from the great collections of Beccari in Borneo, Papua and Suma- 
ira, but many new species have been received from the Sandwich 
Isles, Viti, Samoa, Madagascar, indeed from nearly the whole area 
of the Tribe, The island groups not yet, or very imperfectly, explored 
may be expected to supply hereafter many new species. The hasty 
explorations of Griffith in East Assam and Upper Burma have made 
known to us so many peculiar forms that we may calculate that à 
future satisfactory acquaintance with the interior of China and the 
mountains of the Malay Peninsula with Cochin-China will reveal to 
us numerous new species and genera. Nor can we suppose that the 
collections of Beccari, assuming them tolerably complete over the 
areas he visited, have by any means exhausted the riches of such 
large islands as Borneo and Papua. From the extremely local distri- 
bution of the species in the areas fairly well examined, we may rea- 
sonably infer that the as yet botanically unvisited valleys of Borneo 
will prove rich in new species. The conviction that the tribe Cyrtan- 
dreæ will be doubled in number by the collections of the next half- 
century has influenced me in deciding on the form of the present 
Monograph and the extent to which I have founded (or accepted 
proposed) genera. 
$ 4. WEIGHT TO BE GIVEN TO DIFFERENT CHARACTERS. 
The weight for the purposes of classification given to any cha- 
racter is not here calculated ¢ on any abstract or physiological basis. 
