THE PHILIPPINE PLANTS COLLECTED BY THE WILKES 
UNITED STATES EXPLORING EXPEDITION. 
By Elmer D. Merrill. 
( From the Botanical Section, Biological Laboratory, Bureau of Science, 
Manila, P. I.) 
Volumes 15, 16, and 17 of the reports of the Wilkes United States 
Exploring Expedition deal with botany, the two first published in 
185T and the last from 1859 to 1874. The first of these by Asa Gray, 
entitled “Botany, Phanerogamia, Vol. 1” (volume 15 of the whole), 
consisting of 717 pages of text, quarto, and a folio atlas of 100 plates, 
and considering the flowering plants from Rcmunculacece to Loranthacece, 
is the one treated of in detail in the following paper, although in this in- 
troduction it has been considered advisable to include some notice of the 
other two volumes dealing with the vascular and cellular cryptogams, so 
far as they apply to the Philippines. 
Volume 16, entitled “Botany, Cryptogamia, Filices including Lycopo- 
diaceae and Hydropterides,” by William D. Brackenridge, was published 
in 1854, consisting of vm -|- 357 pages, quarto, and a folio atlas of 46 
plates. In this work seventy-seven species of Philippine ferns are 
enumerated, of which fifteen were described as new. Most of the speci- 
mens on which this list was based are to be found in the United States 
National Herbarium. From the “Letters of Asa Gray” published in 
1893, some information is obtainable regarding this very rare work. On 
pages 404 and 405 we learn that Dr. Gray edited Brackenridge’s 
manuscript, and read the proofs of the work, and on page 432 we further 
learn that “a fire in Philadelphia consumed all the edition except ten 
copies which has been sold mostly in Europe” and that “the Government 
lost a part of their small impression.” As a consequence of this disaster 
the work is very rare, but Mr. AV. R. Maxon of the United States National 
Herbarium informs me that partial or complete copies of the work are 
to be found in many of the State libraries in the United States, these 
presumably originating from the distribution of that part of the Gov- 
ernment’s quota which escaped the fire. 
Volume 17 consists of several papers published at various times, the 
first few consider the vascular cryptogams, while the last by John 
Torrey, entitled “Phanerogamia of the Pacific Coast of North America,” 
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