A dictionary of the plant names of the Philippine ... - Rainforestation

A DICTIONARY OF THE NATIVE PUNT NAMES OF THEPHILIPPINE ISLANDS.By Elmer D. ^Ikkrii.i.,Botanist.INTRODUCTIOX.The preparation of the present work was undertaken at the requestof Capt. G. P. Ahern, Chief of the Forestry Bureau, the objeetbeing to facihtate the work of the various employees of thatBureau in identifying the tree species of economic importancefound in the Arcliipelago.For the interests of the Forestry Bureau the names of the varioustree species only are of importance, but in compiling thisall plant names avaliable have been included in order to make thepresent Avork more generally useful to those Americans resident inthe Archipelago who are interested in the vegetation aboutlistthem.In the preparation of this paper the double arrangement alphabetically,both under the native and scientific names, has beendeemed essential, the latter arrangement especially, because it isoften ver}" important to have all the synonyms of the native namestogether in one place, and, moreover, the notes regarding thespecies are best given under the scientific name in order to preventrepetition of the same information under each of the native namesgiven for the same species. The family of each genus and shortnotes regarding species of economic importance have been givenin order to aid in the identification of the species.The native names used to dc!signate species of economic importance,those which produce edible fruits, medicinal plants, treesvaluable for timber, etc. , are almost invariably applied to the samespecies, although in critical genera some variation and confusionof names are found, which is to be expected. The names appliedto plants of little or no economic importance are frequently veryunreliable, and accordingly, in using this dictionary, whenever