296 The Philippine Journal of Science 1919 
and Papuan forests as undergrowth palms, only the widespread 
and littoral L. spinosa has been found in the Philippines, where 
it occurs ip the more southern islands of the Archipelago, 
Other southern Asiatic or Malayan genera of which represen- 
tatives are wanting in the Philippines are : Pholidocarpus, 
Nenga, Cyrtostachys, Bentinckia, Gigliolia, Zalaccella, Calo- 
spatha, Pigafetta, Ceratolobus, Plectocomiopsis, and Myrialepis. 
The genus Eugeissonia also, which is largely represented in 
Borneo, seems to be unrepresented in the Philippines. 
Areca and Pinanga, among the Arecinaceae, and Calamus and 
Daemonorops, among the Lepidocaryeae, furnish two-thirds of 
the species of palms known as indigenous to the Philippines 
and form the great bulk of its palm flora. 
The genus Areca is particularly remarkable, as out of the 
total number of thirty-six species known to me at present no 
less than ten are very characteristic Philippine ones. In this 
number is also included Areca Catechu, of which we have good 
grounds for believing that it may have acquired its actual 
specific characters in some part of the Philippines. Even 
leaving out of consideration the fact that a variety of Areca 
Catechu (var. silvatica) has been found growing as a real forest 
plant in Palawan, there occur in the Philippines other fine 
species of Areca, closely related to A. Catechu, although cer- 
tainly specifically distinct from it. Of this number are A. 
macrocarpa, A. parens, A. Whitfordii, and perhaps A. Camari- 
nensis. Areca Catechu var. longicarpa, which may perhaps 
represent a distinct species, is also, apparently, a wild-growing 
plant in Polillo. The group to which all the above-mentioned 
species belong has no representative elsewhere ; and if we 
consider A. Catechu as a palm introduced into the Philippines, 
where can we look for the allied species, from which we may 
suppose it to have been derived? As is more fully shown in 
the detailed treatment of the genus Areca, several species besides 
those mentioned above are indigenous to the Philippines. It is 
plainly evident, therefore, that the genus Areca has found in 
the Philippines more favorable evolutionary conditions for the 
plasmation of its endemic forms than elsewhere, and especially 
for the species related to Areca Catechu. 
In the genus Pinanga eighty species are now known to me 
(the descriptions of some of them not yet published), and 25 
per cent of these are endemic Philippine species. However, 
this genus, unlike Areca, presents no conspicuous or anomalous 
Philippine representatives differentiating them much from the 
common Malayan types ; but several are fine large palms deserv- 
