Page:A dictionary of the plant names of the Philippine Islands (1903).djvu/13

 A DICTIONARY OF THE NATIVE PUNT NAMES OF THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS. By Elmer D. MERRELL, Botanist. INTRODUCTION. The preparation of the present work was undertaken at the request of Capt. G. P. Ahern, Chief of the Forestry Bureau, the objeet being to facilitate the work of the various employees of that Bureau in identifying the tree species of economic importance found in the Archipelago.

For the interests of the Forestry Bureau the names of the various tree species only are of importance, but in compiling this list all plant names available have been included in order to make the present work more generally useful to those Americans resident in the Archipelago who are interested in the vegetation about them.

In the preparation of this paper the double arrangement alphabetically, both under the native and scientific names, has been deemed essential, the latter arrangement especially, because it is often very important to have all the synonyms of the native names together in one place, and, moreover, the notes regarding the species are best given under the scientific name in order to prevent repetition of the same information under each of the native names given for the same species. The family of each genus and short notes regarding species of economic importance have been given in order to aid in the identification of the species.

The native names used to designate species of economic importance, those which produce edible fruits, medicinal plants, trees valuable for timber, etc., are almost invariably applied to the same species, although in critical genera some variation and confusion of names are found, which is to be expected. The names applied to plants of little or no economic importance are frequently very unreliable, and accordingly, in using this dictionary, whenever 5