The Philippine Journal of Science, C. Botany. 
Vol. VI, No. 3, July, 1911. 
BOTANICAL NOTES UPON THE ISLAND OF POLILLO. 
By 0. B. Robinson. 
( From, the Botanical Section of the Biological Laboratory, Bureau of Science, 
Manila, P. I.) 
The Island of Polillo lies off the eastern coast of Luzon, its southern 
extremity being almost in the same latitude as Manila. Published esti- 
mates give it an area of 852 sq km, making it sixteenth in size of the 
islands of the Philippine Archipelago. Recent surveys have shown that 
the outline indicated upon older maps is inaccurate, and the corrected 
area will probably be somewhat larger than that given here. Its greatest 
length is about 56 km, roughly from northwest to southeast, it is widest 
near its northern end and narrowest near the middle. 
The nearest point on the Island of Luzon is about 32 Ion distant, and 
depths of nearly 180 m have been recorded in the interval. A reef runs 
from the lower end of the bay in which the town of Polillo is situated 
for several miles toward the opposite coast -near Infanta. The northern 
end of the island is fringed by coral reefs extending 5 to 1 km from the 
shore. To the east lie several much smaller islands, beyond which the 
Pacific attains a great depth, with no land nearer in this direction than 
the Mariannes. Luzon is more distant to the south than to the west, but 
the water is shallower and the gap somewhat bridged by islands. Polillo 
is therefore one of the most isolated of the larger islands of the 
Philippines. 
Except for cultivated land, Polillo is nearly everywhere covered with 
virgin forest, waste land being of very slight extent. The population is 
now estimated at over 3,000, but there are only two places of any im- 
portance, the town of Polillo near the southern extremity of the western 
coast, and the barrio of Burdeos, some miles "north of Polillo and on the 
opposite side of the island. Apart from* these, settlement is more scat- 
tered than is usual in the Philippines, but confined to narrow strips along 
the coasts, the northern excepted, clearings rarely going in more than 1 
km and never more than 3 km. The northern part is inhabited by Ne- 
gritos, at least so-called, with no definite locations, and is practically 
unknown, The interior is hilly, but the elevations are never great, the 
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