182 
PACIFIC SCIENCE, Vol. VII, April, 1953 
natiim Merr., Dysoxylum ctmingiana DC., 
Styrax kotoensis Hay., Turpinia lucida Nakai, 
Macaranga dipterocarpifolia Merr., etc. 
The importance in floristic migration played 
by the chain of small islands between the 
Philippines and Formosa can be illustrated 
more precisely by a few cases. Among the 
wide paleotropic species, chiefly along or near 
the coast and common throughout the Philip- 
pine Islands, are Morinda citrifolia L. and 
Maha huxifoUa (Rott.) Pers. ( == Diospyros ferrea 
Bakh.). These species extend through the 
Batan and Babuyan Islands to Formosa, lim- 
ited in the latter case only to Lutao and Lanyu 
and the southernmost Hunchuen Peninsula. 
Among the less wide species are Aglaia for- 
mosana Hay. and A. elliptici folia Merr., both 
of the northern part of Luzon. These species 
also extend northward, following the same 
route, through the Batan and Babuyan Is- 
lands to Hunchuen Peninsula in Formosa and 
to Lutao and Lanyu. 
That these southern tropical elements are 
relatively recent arrivals in Formosa can be 
attested by their occurrence in coastal regions 
and in secondary forests as well as by their 
specific identity with Philippine plants. In 
most cases, the species in Formosa are exactly 
the same as in the Philippines. These species 
have not been isolated long enough to have 
undergone any morphological differentiation. 
It may be presumed that this northward mi- 
gration is not only very recent but is still 
continuing at the present. Success of estab- 
lishment of these southern species in Formosa 
is controlled mainly by climate factors. With 
probable continued rise of temperature in the 
future, there may be more southern species 
entering into the flora of Formosa. At the 
same time, many of the species will be able 
to extend their range to the northern part of 
the island. 
SOME FLORISTIC NOTES 
In the past, this southern affinity of the 
Formosan flora has not been properly empha- 
sized because of our inadequate information. 
The floras of Formosa and the Philippines 
have been studied, in most cases, independ- 
ently of one another. Many of the species 
proposed from Formosa are later found to be 
conspecific with earlier-named Philippine spe- 
cies. Such scattered findings are increasing in 
number. More recently, with ample reference 
collections from the Philippine Islands at 
hand, the present writer restudied many For- 
mosan plants in connection with related spe- 
cies from neighboring regions. It was dis- 
covered that many species, especially those 
considered endemic to southern Formosa or 
Lanyu (Botel Tobago), are synonymous with 
certain generally widespread species of the 
Philippine Islands, especially of Luzon and 
the northern small islands. Some of these 
notes have been published in a few scattered j 
papers (Li, 1950, 1952). A number of recent | 
findings are enumerated below. Cited speci- j 
mens are selected from the herbarium of the i 
National Taiwan University, Formosa (NTU), 
and the U.S. National Herbarium, Smith- 
sonian Institution (US). 
Urticaceae 
1. Laportea batanensis C. B. Robinson in 
Philip. Jour. Sci. 5. Bot.: 481, 1910. 
Laportea kotoensis Hay., Gen. Ind. FI. For- 
mos. 70, 1916, nomen; Kanehira, For- 
mos. Trees 529, 1917; ibid., rev. ed. 170, 
1936. Syn. nov. 
Batan Islands, Botel Tobago. 
Neither Hayata nor Kanehira cited speci- 
mens, but Kanehira’s very brief description 
shows that the plant is identical to the Philip- 
pine species, L. batanensis, known from the 
Batan Islands only. 
Myristicaceae 
1. Myristica cagayanensis Merr. in Philip. 
Jour. Sci. 17: 255, 1920; Kanehira, Formos. 
Trees rev. ed. 193, f. 141, 19^6. 
Myristica glomerata Kudo & Masamune in 
Ann. Taihoku Bot. Card. 2: 89, 1932. 
Syn. nov. 
