PREFACE 7 



apparently undescribed forms encountered during the preparation of the 

 manuscript, as well as the few new combinations made necessary by a 

 strict interpretation of the accepted code of nomenclature, will be found 

 in a paper entitled "Nomenclatural and Systematic Notes on the Flora of 

 Manila,'" published previous to this work. A general consideration of 

 the more striking characters of the flora, the introduced species and their 

 origin, etc., will be found in the same publication.' 



In the descriptions of families, genera, and species, the general sequence 

 of characters as that adopted by Hooker in his "Flora of British India" 

 has been followed. Many of the family and generic descriptions have 

 been complied from that work, more or less modified to suit the character 

 of the present publication; the descriptions of the species have been 

 rewritten, partly from fresh material and partly from dried specimens, with 

 reference to previously published descriptions in various standard works. 



This publication contains the descriptions of 1007 species. 59 1 genera, 

 and 136 families, nearly one-sixth of the species ' definitely known from 

 the Archipelago at the present time. Most of these are the very com- 

 monest and most widely distributed ones in the Philippines, and form the 

 characteristic vegetation of the settled areas at low altitudes in all parts 

 of the Archipelago. 



An examination of a number of recent elementary textbooks of botany 

 has convinced me that it is impossible for the student to gain from th^m 

 a suiRcjent knowledge^of the technical names used in descriptive botany, 

 properly to use a volume like the present one. For this reason it has 

 been considered essential to include a short consideration of the terms more 

 generally used in describing plants, in order to make the present work more 

 complete in itself. The terms defined in the following pages will alsp be 

 found in the Glossary of Technical Terms on page 25, together vnth many 

 of the more unusual terms that are used to a greater or less extent in the 

 following descriptions. 



E. D. Merrill. 



' Philip. Journ. Sci. 7 (1912) Bot. 2f7-251. 



"'Notes on the Flora of Manila, with Special Reference to the Introduced 

 Element." Philip, fourn. Sci. 7 (1912) Bot. 145-208. 



