NEW PHILIPPINE PLANTS FROM THE COLLECTIONS OF 
MARY STRONG CLEMENS, I. 
By Elmer D. Merrill. 
(From the Botanical Section of the Biological Laboratory, Bureau of Science, 
Manila, P. I.) 
From December, 1905, to October, 1907, Chaplain Joseph Clemens of 
the Seventeenth United States Infantry, accompanied by his wife, was 
stationed at Camp Keithley, Lake Lanao, Mindanao, and during this time 
Mrs. Clemens made extensive botanical collections which were forwarded 
from time to time to this herbarium for study. In the two years during 
which collections were made, somewhat over 1,200 numbers of plants 
were sent to Manila, besides a very extensive supplementary collection 
of unnumbered material. 
Lake Lanao is located at an altitude of about 760 meters above the 
sea, and Camp Keithley is situated near the lake on the ridge between it 
and the Sulu Sea, the highest point on the reservation being about 815 
meters above sea level. The region is subject to heavy rainfall, and 
during parts of the year fogs are very prevalent, so that the humidity 
is relatively high. The district was entirely unexplored botanically, 
and the collection, as was to be expected, has shown an unusually 
high percentage of novelties, containing many genera hitherto unknown 
from the Philippines, several apparently undescribed genera, many species 
new to the Archipelago, and a great number of undescribed species, while 
the range of many plants, previously known only from Luzon, has been 
extended to Mindanao. A number of novelties from this collection have 
been included in my previous papers, among them several new species, as 
well as genera and species new to the Philippines. The material still 
contained so much of interest that it was thought advisable to prepare 
and publish a series of two or three papers, for the greater part based 
on this collection. 
The Lake Lanao region, politically, is one of the most turbulent 
districts in the Philippines, and has been under firm control during the 
recent years of American occupation only, and after several campaigns 
against the fanatical Moros who inhabit the region. Spanish authority 
was only nominal before the year 1898, while even at the present date 
the district can not be considered a safe one for the traveler. Minor 
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