The Philippine Journal of Science, C. Botany. 
Vol. VI, No. 4, September, 1911. 
PHILIPPINE D1PTEROCARPACEAE. 
♦ 
By Fred W. Foxworthy. 
(From the Botanical Section of the Biological Laboratory, Bureau' of Science, 
Manila, P. 7.) 
There is surprisingly little known of this family, although it produces 
our most important timber trees and certain species form the bulk of the 
stand in our primitive forests. The time of flowering and fruiting is 
not well understood for any of out species. The reasons for this are 
probably the scanty population and the primitive state of the natives 
where the members of this family are most common, and the very large 
size of the trees. Most of the species produce trees of very large size, 
which are unbranched to a considerable height. This makes it very 
difficult to collect herbarium material and also difficult to determine 
whether the trees are, in flower or fruit. Moreover, these trees are 
often found in regions remote from transportation, the species are variable 
and closely related. Other regions of the tropical east where this family 
is represented, present similar conditions y so, there is not so much aid 
in the consideration of critical points as might be desired. 
The published data on the Philippine dipterocarps has consisted of 
very incomplete and inaccurate descriptions of some ten or eleven species 
by Blanco the splendid work of Dr. Whitford 1 2 on the composition and 
stand of the dipterocarp forests, with habit notes on many species; 
descriptions of a number of species by Brandis ; 3 4 and scattered taxonomic 
notes on particular species by various workers. In addition to these, 
there are a number of notes on habit, distribution, etc., that have been 
made by various members of the forest service in the Philippines, and 
1 Blanco, M. Flora de Filipinas (1837) 401, 446-454; ed. 2 (1845) 281, 310-315. 
2 Whitford, H. N. Studies in the Vegetation of the Philippines. I. The Com- 
position and Volume of the Dipterocarp Forests of the Philippines. This Journal 
4 (1910) Bot. 699-725; The Forests of the Philippines. Bull. Philip. Bur. For. 
10 (1911). 
8 Brandis, Dietrich. An Enumeration of the Dipteroearpaceae. Journ. Linn. 
Soe. Bot. 31 (1895) 1-148. 
231 
