184 
The Philippine Journal of Science 
1915 
While the erroneous citation of a considerable number of Cum- 
ing’s plants as Philippine was due to the fact that he distributed 
the entire collection with Philippine labels, only certain labels 
being filled out as to localities as explained previously, the case 
presented by the collections of Thomas Lobb is decidedly dif- 
ferent. Lobb was a professional orchid collector, who visited 
Singapore, Java, Borneo, and Luzon. In connection with his 
search for living orchids, Lobb also made a general botanical 
collection, preparing from one to several duplicates of each 
species secured. It has been found that a certain specimen 
labeled in the Kew herbarium, for instance, as originating in 
Luzon, may be represented in other herbaria by a duplicate 
labeled “Java,” “Borneo,” or “Singapore.” 
Vidal 10 clearly indicates the doubt that existed in his mind 
as to the propriety of admitting as Philippine those species that 
were credited to the Archipelago solely on the basis of specimens 
collected by Lobb and labelled “Luzon:” “[Las plantas de] Lobb 
son pocas en numero por haber explorado dicho viajero princi- 
palmente Borneo, Malaca y el archipielago malayano. Como se 
observa mas adelante, al citarlas en la lista de revision, sus loca- 
lidades son poco seguras, sin duda por haberse confundido con 
las remitidas desde los paises vecinos al Archipielago;” “Como 
se ha indicado ya, las localidades de las plantas de Lobb no me- 
recen entera confianza, asi toda especie con solo ejemplares de 
este colector queda algo dudosa para nuestra flora.” 
The mixture of labels in Lobb’s collection can be explained 
only on the assumption that it was deliberate in order to obscure 
the regions from which he may have secured valuable commercial 
orchids; this statement does not necessarily infer that Lobb 
himself was responsible for the mixture. It has been assumed 
that the set of Lobb’s plants deposited in the Kew herbarium 
are correctly labeled, but this is certainly not the case. In a 
number of cases species have been ascribed to the Philippines 
solely on the basis of Lobb’s specimens labeled “Luzon,” and the 
Philippine flora has thus been enriched by such species as Loran- 
thus retusus Jack, Eurycoma longifolia Jack, Archytaea vahlii 
Choisy, Leucopogon malayanus Jack, Embelia myrtillus Kurz, 
Fagraea ligustrina Blume, Anisophyllea disticha Hook., and Ilex 
lobbiana Rolfe. Of these the genera Eurycoma, Archytaea, and 
Anisophyllea have no known representatives in the Philippines, 
and none of the species enumerated above have ever been col- 
lected in the Philippines since they were accredited to the Archi- 
” Rev. PI. Vase. Filip. (1886) 9, 173. 
