PH I LADELPHACE/E. Lindl. The syringe tribe of plants, comprising the genus Philadelphus, the Buzru, Mudnu, Zhoang of the Sutlej, appear to be the species P. tomentosus ; grows at from 8000 to 9500 feet, and is stated to be used for I'liILIPiEA GALOTROPID IS. Stewart. Blium-plior, . . HIND. i Khurjin, Khalatri, PA NJ.
This grows like a parasite on the roots of the Calotropis in Shahpur, and is said to be used as fodder for sheep, goats, and oxen, not camels. In Shnhpur, Dr. Stewart says the plants grow on the roots of the Salvadora olcoides, and on all the tamarisks, and that he never found them on the Calotropis. The natives call it Gidar ka tamaku, jackal's tobacco. It is a very striking object. The bare, hard soil near a Salvadora bush cracks, and in the course of a night the place is studded with what resembles huge flowering heads of digitalis, each with a stem more than an inch thick, and without any regular leaves.—Stewart.
l'HILIPPINE ARCHIPELAGO consists of over 500 islands, but only Luzon and Mindanao are of great size. The group lies between Borneo and Formosa, and separates the Northern Pacific Ocean from the China Sea. It. covers 14f degrees of latitude, from lat. 5° to 19° 30' N., but with the Bashee or Batanes Islands to lat. 21° N.; about 300 leagues from north to south, and 180 leagues from east to west, and in 1876 had 6,173,632 inhabitants. The islands were discovered by Magellan in 1521, and were first claimed by the Spaniards in 1565. They are separated from the Sulu Archipelago on the south by the Strait of Basilian, while on the north the Balintang channel separates them from the Batanes and Bashee Islands. The principal islands are Luzon, and to its south Mindoro, Magindanao, Palawan, Panay, and Samar. The Archipelago received its name after Philip the Second of Spain. It is the Spanish Indies, and is spread through an area of 52,647 English square miles. The Caraballos range of mountains runs through the centre of the whole, and in Luzon the mountains are occupied by unsubdued races. There are large lakes in most of the islands ; and Mindanao, min of the lake,' gets its name from its numerous waters. There are thermal springs at Laguna, and boiling springs north in the district of Mainit.
Luzon, the largest island, has an area of 2000 square miles ; Mindauao, 1500 square miles; and the next in size are Palawan, Samar, Panay, Mindoro, Leyte, Negros, and Zebu. The light house on the north pier of Luzon is in lat. 14° 36' N., and long. 120° 57' 20" E., and its popu lation has been estimated at nearly five millions. It is the best known to Europeans. Long and narrow, 450 miles by from 10 to 140, its coast is fringed with rocks and broken by many gulfs, inlets, and capacious bays. The surface is covered through a large portion of its ex tent by mountains, two high ranges in the north being divided by the Cagayar river, which flows between two headlands into the sea. The focus of the aboriginal civilisation of the Philippines, as might bo expected, has been the main island of the group. Luzon is a corrup .
tion of the Malay and Javanese word Laming, meaning a rice-mortar. The Spaniania are mid to have naked the name of the Wand, and the natives, who certainly had none, thinking they meant a rice-mortar, which was before the speakers at the time, answered accordingly.
They are often shaken by earthquakes, and volcanic explosions are so frequent as to be regarded almost as common occurrences. The provinces are frequently visited with dreadful hurricanes, called in the country Leaguioa. In no other part of the world are storms so terrific as there during the change of the monsoon. They are often desolated by locusts.
Negros or Buglas Island extends from lat. 9° 4' to 9° 50' N. The central group of the Philippines consists of Panay, Negros, Samar, Leyte, Masbate, Bohol, and Zebu ; the two first and Luzon are the chief islands in which Negrito tribes exist to the present day, and even as regards Panay the fact must bo considered doubtful. Negros, however, contains a considerable Negrito population; the crest of the mountain range, which extends throughout the length of the island, a distance of 120 miles, being almost exclusively occupied by scattered tribes. There is a rainy season of six months, and a mixed one of equal duration.