was Sebastian Vidal, who sent or took to Kew about 4,000 num- 

 bers, many of them gathered in the hitherto unexplored Benguet 

 region of northern Luzon, whence have come so many of the 

 most interesting recent discoveries. 



These and the other rich collections in the Kew herbarium en- 

 abled Rolfe,* in 1884, to publish what has been till now the only 

 important paper upon the affinities of the Philippine flora. 



In the meantime explorations elsewhere have done much to 

 reveal the secrets of the most nearly related regions. This is 

 notably true of Henry's large collections in central and western 

 China and in Formosa, and of Koorders' work in Minahassa, or 

 northeastern Celebes. But the results of Loher's splendid Philip- 

 pine collections have never been published, except as regards 

 occasional groups. 



The great energy with which exploration has been carried on 

 in many districts in the Philippines and the large quantity of ma- 

 terial thus obtained, hav^e made it possible for Mr. Merrill to 

 preface the paper here noted with a discussion of two sets of 

 affinities, those with Celebes on the south, and those with For- 

 mosa, China, the Himalayas, and Japan on the north and west. 



From his enumeration it appears that there are now over 50 

 species known from the Philippines and Celebes and nowhere else, 

 and another 25 that extend from the Philippines through Celebes 

 to more distant islands. Several further cases are cited where 

 Philippine species have striking affinities with those of Celebes 

 but fall short of specific identity. It may be worth noting that 

 although some of these belong to the southern Philippines, others 

 are widely distributed throughout the archipelago. 



Far different is the case with the northern or semi-tropical 

 affinities, for these with few exceptions are found in the flora of 

 the Benguet and Lepanto-Bontoc provinces, the mountainous 

 regions of northern Luzon. This list is so much more compli- 

 cated in its nature that it is not easily summarized ; but again 

 over 50 species are known to be specifically identical with those 

 of more northern countries, and an equal number of additional 

 cases are cited where affinities lie definitely in this direction. 



*Jour. Linn. Soc. 21 : 283-316. //. /o. 1884. 



