The Philippine Journal oe Science, C. Botany. 
Vol. VI, No. 1, March, 1911. 
• NOTES ON PHILIPPINE ORCHIDS WITH DESCRIPTIONS 
OF NEW SPECIES, III. 
By Oakes Ames. 
(From the Ames Botanical Laboratory, Forth Easton, Mass., U. 8. A.) 
The orchid flora of the Philippines, although rich and varied, is not dis- 
tinctive. If we except the sections of one or two genera which appear 
to have their center of distribution in these Islands, it is very similar in 
type to that of adjacent regions. According to our present information 
nearly one-fourth of the recognized orchid genera of the world are known 
to inhabit the Philippines , 1 but with surprisingly few exceptions they 
are poorly represented in the number of species assigned to them. It 
is safe to say that our acquaintance with Philippine orchids is extremely 
limited and that further explorations are sure to add substantially to our 
lists of recorded species; for rarely a collection comes to hand from the 
Bureau of Science which does not contain either novelties, or species 
heretofore unknown to be natives of the Islands. Furthermore, these 
collections fall far short of being exhaustive in their nature. Frequently 
they represent only the plants that were in flower at the time the col- 
lectors were in the field. Then again, the Islands have not been botanized 
with equal thoroughness ; Luzon, for example, being much better known 
than any of the others. 
In my previously published lists of Philippine orchids about seventy 
genera and three hundred and forty-seven species have been recorded. 
Including the species described in “Orchidaceae” by „Mr. R. A. Rolfe, and 
the Erias published in this Journal by Dr. R. G-. Leavitt, about one 
hundred and sixty-five novelties have been recognized among recent 
collections. In addition to these there is a mass of material in the her- 
barium of "the Bureau of Science which still remains for critical study 
and final identification. 
I have prepared for this paper a list of the genera which have been 
ascribed to the Philippines, together with the number of species which 
have been referred to them. I have omitted genera and species which 
in my estimation are doubtful or which have been attributed to the 
1 According to Pfitzer’s enumeration in “Die naturliclien Pflanzenfamilien.” 
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