The Philippine Journal of Science, C. Botany. 
Vol. VI, No. 6, December, 1911. 
THE PHILIPPINE SPECIES OF BEGONIA. 
By E. D. Merrill. 
( From the Botanical Section of the Biological Laboratory, 
Bureau of Science, Manila, P. I.) 
In the pre-Linnean botanical literature I have found but a single 
reference to Philippine Begonia, Acetosa nigritarum of Kamel, pub- 
lished in Ray’s “Historia Plantarum,” 1 and on which Steudel later 
based the name Begonia nigritarum. Except for the somewhat casual 
mention of Acetosa nigritarum by Dryander, 2 no additional references 
to the Philippine species are to be found until the publication of 
Blanco’s “Flora de Filipinas” in 1837, where a single species is described, 
but erroneously referred to Begonia capensis L. Ko additional forms 
are included in the second edition of Blanco’s work, nor in the third, 
so far as that edition is a reprint of the second. Begonia capensis 
Blanco, non L., is manifestly identical with Acetosa nigritarum Kamel = 
Begonia nigritarum Steud. ( B . rhombicarpa A. DC.). 
In 1854 A. Gray described two additional species of Philippine Be- 
gonia and credited a third to the Archipelago, based on material col- 
lected in Luzon by the Wilkes U. S. Exploring Expedition, 3 and in the 
same year Klotzsch 4 published the description of a single species, as 
Petermannia, identical with one described by Gray. 
In 1864 A. DeCandolle’s monograph of the family appeared 5 in 
which 10 species in two genera were credited to the Archipelago. The 
number of species was increased to 13 by F.-Villar in 1880 6 but Villar’s 
list is reliable only so far as he followed DeCandolle’s monograph as 
to species credited to the Archipelago by the latter author. 
In 1904 Warburg published the descriptions of 10 additional Philip- 
pine species of Begonia , 7 making a total of about 20 valid species 
4 3 Suppl. (1704) 14. 
2 Trans. Linn. Soc. 1 (1791) 171. 
3 Bot. Wilkes U. S. Explor. Exped. (1854) 658. 
4 Monatsber. Berl. Akad. (1854) 124. 
'Prodr. 15 (1864) 266-408. 
‘Nov. App. (1880) 98-99. 
7 Perk. Frag. FI. Philip. (1904) 51-56. 
