Barbour County index., 1902-11-26
LOTS OF UNKNOWN FLORA.
SsW Insular POssessiOns Afford O
gascinating Field for Enthu-
siastic BOtaniAts.

i
New York it seems likely to bear i'm
portant educational fruit in connec-
tion with the new botanical gardens
and museum recently opened in Bronx
park. Directors of the gardens some
time ago sent member of their staff
to Porto Rico with Professor Evans,
TO investigate certain phases of fora
70 be found in a stretch of gardens
some time ago sent Percy Wilson, stay
on the island was altogether too linn.
tied for any exhaustive collecting, he
did succeed in getting a few fine palms
and several examples of orchids to the
institution, states the Philadelphia
Ledger.
But the question arises whether this
suffices. The American people are
clamoring to know something more of
the fora of the Philippines, Guam,
Hawaii and Porto Rico.
With the possible exception of Ha-
wall there has been very little serious
attempt at investigation and classi-
hcatlon of the fora of our new posses
slons. Very little literature is avail
able to the American student of to-day
covering these fields, and for those
confined to the English language there
is practically no printed information
whatever.
In the case of the Philippines the
botanical literature is extremely mea-
ger, being limited to a publication
bearing the title LA Flora de Fill
pino," work printed in Spanish by
the Jesuit fathers resident in the
islands. But it is in no sense accepted
as an authority by accredited bota-
nlSts, they saying that the text shows
no evidences of individual research or
close observation of the plants de-
scribed.
his lack of literature and informa-
tlon IS IN great part explained by the
antagonistlc attitude of the Spaniards
to exploration of the interior by scien-
lists of countries other than their
own. They guarded the islands ieal-
ously from alien intrusion, looking
with suspicion upon all requests for
exploring privileges and scientific re-
search, putting annoying obstacles in
the way of all who sought to enter
their interior Being languid and in
different themselves, they troubled
but little about the natural treasures
that surrounded them.
But in the two years of American
occupation of the Philippines enough
has been learned of the natural his
tory of the islands to warrant the pre-
dlctlon that they present an illimita BILE
field for collection.
Writing of them in this connection,
an educated native, who knows his
country well, says that "these rich and
multitudinous islands, seated in the
midst of tropical sea, form in reality
botanist's paradise, a region in which
an ardent naturalist might browse for
years and still have new treasures left
to find"
And the same sentiment echoes
through all the accounts related by re-
turning sojourners in the islands. The
wife of an American army officer sta
toned there, on a recent visit to the
United States, says that while Journey
ing through the forests in the islands,
with their vast variety of plant life,
the trees in many cases presenting a
Kaleidoscope riot of color from the
masses of orchids hanging from trunks s
and limbs, some odd and unique in ap-
pearance, many unknown to science
Institutions in other countries are
taking cognizance of the field here pre-
scented under new conditions, notably
the Kew gardens, of England, which
already have a representative collec-
tion in the islands.
But enough riffs of knowledge have
broken through the dense cloud of pub
lie ignorance on the subject of our new
possessions to have whetted the appe-
tite for fuller information. So it looks
very much as if, providing there be no
appropriation at hand to carry out this
work of collecting floral specimens
there, we shall have to depend upon
private gifts or endowments.
Even if this be so, the project should
certainly appeal to those interested
in the cause of general education (and
that the study of botany is useful and
refining one no one can question:, and
having patriotic pride in the advance
ment of our public museums and kim
dred institutions in ladelphia, as
we'll as in New York and elsewhere.
Horses Which Never Drink.
There are hundreds of horses and
fbOnSnn6c Of aatflo in ha Hawaiian