Page:A dictionary of the plant names of the Philippine Islands (1903).djvu/14

6 possible the plant should be compared with at least the generic description before accepting the scientific name to which the native name refers.

Most of the names in the present work not compiled from data on the specimens now in the herbarium have been taken from the following works: Blanco, "Flora de Filipinas," first edition, 1837, and second edition, 1845; Fernandez-Villar and Naves, "Novissima Appendix ad Floram Philippinarum, " 1880-1883; Vigil, "Diccionario de los nombres vulgares que se dan en filipinas á muchas plantas usuales y notables," 1879; Vidal, S., "Sinopsis de familias y generos de plantas leñosas de filipinas," 1883; "Reseña de la flora del archipielago filipino," 1883; "Revisión de plantas vasculares de filipinas," 1886; Ceron, "Catálogo de las plantas del herbario," 1892; Puigdulles, "Apuntes para el mejor conocimiento, clasificación, y valuación de las principales especiales arboreoforestales de filipinas," 1895; Tavera, "Plantas medicinales de filipinas, " 1892; Espejo, "Cartilla de agricultura filipina," 1892; "Catálogo de la exposición general de las islas filipinas," Madrid, 1887; "Guía oficial de las islas filipinas," 1898.

In many instances much difficulty was experienced in properly referring many of the native names recorded in some of these works to the accepted scientific names of to-day, due to the present chaotic state of Philippine botany. The greatest difficulty was met with in attempting to properly refer the many names given by Blanco, for, in spite of all the work done on the Philippine flora since the publication of Blanco's "Flora de Filipinas," his species are to-day very imperfectly known. In most cases in referring the native names given by Blanco to their scientific names I have followed F.-Villar in his generic identifications, as given in the Novissima Appendix, but, except in the case of widely distributed and well-known species, his specific identifications have been discarded. In identifying Blanco's species F.-Villar made few errors in his generic identifications, but his specific identifications of a large per cent of the species can not be accepted.

The present paper enumerates about 5,000 plant names used by natives of the Philippines, and has been compiled chiefly from the publications of the various Spanish botanists who have worked on the flora of the Archipelago. So far as possible these names have been compared with the names on specimens in the herbarium of this Bureau for verification. It seems that in the past there was