PTERIDOPHYTA HALCONENSES. 
121 
with these should he mentioned Lomaria Fraseri of New Zealand and 
central and northern Luzon. However, the range extensions are mostly 
in the direction that I have already shown to be the general one of 
migration 1 ; that is, towards the north. Shorter steps of this kind are 
those of Diplazium Palauanense and Gleickenia dicarpa , known previously 
from Palawan, Monogramme darececarpa and Polypodium tenuisectum 
from Negros, and P. mollicomum and P. Yoderi from Panay. A con- 
siderable number of ferns, Monachosorum, Oleandra Whitmeei , Diplaziop- 
sisj Blechnun vestitum , Plagiogyria Christii , Acrosorus (represented by 
a jiew species), Polypodium Celebicum and Diclcsonia chrisotricha are 
here found for the first time north of Mindanao. With these notable 
internal extensions of range, it is rather striking, even when we remember 
that Halcon is near the center of the Archipelago, to find in this collection 
only eight additions to our flora, of plants already known elsewhere. Of 
these eight plants, two are cosmopolitan, and all are Malayan. Another 
factor in the present state of our knowledge is that here, as in Mindanao, 
the Celebes element seems to dominate over the Bornean; yet Mindoro 
is connected with Borneo through the Calamianes Islands, Palawan and 
Balabac, with only insignificant gaps, and Mr. Merrill believes that 
Halcon geologically is similar to Mount Kinabalu in north Borneo, it 
being a mass granite, marble, white quartz and with some schist-like 
rock. However this may he, the only Halcon fern in the collection 
which is apparently of Bornean origin is Ophioglossum intermedium. 
While we are receiving the congratulations of our European- friends 
and sometimes congratulating ourselves on the present progress in local 
pteridology, we must not forget that the picture we are painting is still 
almost wholly canvas. We know perhaps most of the ferns growing 
near one trail up Apo, one trail up Halcon, and we know something 
of the fern flora of Santo Tomas and Data in northern Luzon, and of the 
high plateau country between the two latter mountains. Of Malindang 
in Mindanao, Canlaon in Negros, Madiaas in Panay, and Banajao in 
central Luzon, all near 2,400 meters in altitude or higher, we know es- 
sentially nothing, having some half-dozen ferns from each. The highest 
mountain in northern Luzon has never been climbed by a botanist or a 
collector, nor has the second, Bulusan, neither have Malaya, nor Solis, 
nor any mountain of the high and extensive eastern Cordillera. The same 
is true of the high peaks of southern Luzon, of all mountains of Samar, 
of the high eastern range of Mindanao, of Roosevelt, Apo’s great neighbor, 
and of the highest peak in Palawan. Yet it is on these great mountains, 
not on their summits, but on their large areas at intermediate elevations, 
that our fern vegetation reaches its most luxuriant development. Ex- 
ploration has obviously not reached the point where statements as to 
inter-island range have more than a temporary interest. 
1 This Journal Botany (1907) 2: 3-10. 
