ALBERT

Description: It is a generally accepted concept nowadays that dichotomy is the most primitive type of ramification in land plants. Recently Lam (1948) briefly reviewed the literature of this subject in the light of the telome theory. He recalled that the dichotomies of fern leaves are to be regarded as homologous to the dichotomies of stems in more primitive plants and enumerated a number of more or less haphazardly collected cases in higher plants, of which the most probable interpretation is that they are traces of such ancient dichotomies, betraying their original relation to a branch system.\nIn his paper, Lam discriminated between such traces in vegetative and in reproductive parts and he arrived at the provisional conclusion that traces of ancient dichotomies in the vegetative parts should particularly occur in what he termed the \xe2\x80\x98phyllosporous\xe2\x80\x99 plants, and that those of the reproductive parts are particularly found in the \xe2\x80\x98stachysporous\xe2\x80\x99 groups.

Description: The Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University, Jamaica Plain, Mass. The Gray Herbarium of Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass. U.S. National Herbarium, Smithonian Institution, Washington, DC. New York Botanical Gardens, Bronx Park, Fordham Br.P.O., N.Y. Bot. Gardens, Ann. Arbor, Mich. University of California, Department of Botany, Berkeley, Cal. Field museum of natural History, Department of Botany, Chicago, Ill.\nGreat Britain. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew-Surrey (except types) British Museum, Natural History, Bot. Department, Cromwell Road, London SW & Botany School, Cambridge.

Description: Mr R.E. Holttum, Director of the Botanic Gardens, Singapore, who was on leave in England from July to mid-November, reported that Mr C.X. Furtado has returned to Singapore and is working on the genus Calamus as part of his revision of the Palmae of the Malay Peninsula. Mr Holttum \xe2\x80\x99aims at getting a revised Flora of the Malay Peninsula written, of which he himself will be responsible for most of the Monocotyledones except Aroids and Palms. Mr M.R. Henderson is working on some families of Dicotyledones. This Flora must be fuller than Ridley\xe2\x80\x99s, and with sufficient introductory matter and illustrations to make it intelligible to the ordinary resident who is prepared to take soms interest in local plants\xe2\x80\x99. Mr Holttum will retire in 1950; he will then devote his time to revise Flora Malesiana, series II, Pteridophyta. Mr Holttum spent a fortnight in Holland, in October, and discussed the contributions to Flora Malesiana which can be prepared at Singapore on the basis of mutual cooperation.\nDr A.J.G.H. Kostermans has been appointed Forest Botanist in the Forest Experiment Station, Buitenzorg, Java. He has resumed his studies on the Malaysian Lauraceae.

Description: Flora of Java. Dr C.A. Backer has been working towards the composition of a Dutch-written Flora of Java since about 1903, at first in Java, and onwards of 1931 in Holland. When the war started it was thought safer to mimeograph the MS. as far as it was finished, in order to save the writers\xe2\x80\x99 labours against the chance of complete destruction by bombing or other causes. Prof. Dr H.J. Lam managed to get a number of subscribers and funds for a mimeograph edition. This constitures the \xe2\x80\x9dNooduitgave\xe2\x80\x9d (emergency edition) in which up till now 120 families have appeared in 7 folio volumes. The edition was limited to ca 25 copies. It is the intention to edit 2 volumes more, and then stop it. Circumstances necessitate the printed edition to be written in English to which the author has now consented, and which he will manage himself, Prof. Lam also succeeded in getting a number of temporary cooperators who have assisted Dr Backer in revising some families, viz. Dr A.D.J. Meeuse, A.G.L. Adelbert, and R.C. Bakhuizen van den Brink Jr, whilst the specialists Dr J. Wasscher, Dr S.J. van Ooststroom and Miss Dr G.J.H. Amshoff and the late Prof. Dr B.H. Danser made contributions. She revisions are now nearing completion. Only very few families, mostly sympetalous, are not yet finished. The flora will include the Pteridophytes (more than 500 in Java) and through the consent of Mrs Smith also the Orchidaceae (ca 700!); the latter will be revised on the basis of the MS. revision left by the late Dr J.J. Smith.\nIn the emergency edition practically all synonyms have been omitted for brevity\xe2\x80\x99s sake. It is to be hoped that they will be re-inserted in the scientific edition now aimed at. Endless labours have been spent in identifying the species described under various names, and to a certain extent these synonyms have shaped the specific delimitations and argumentate the present conceptions. They can be omitted in a concise popular flora, but not in the work now prepared. It has taken a long way to reach the present state to account for the flora of Java, but we are sure that the work will certainly be the most valuable contribution towards the flora of Java ever made, as its author possesses an unsurpassed field knowledge combined with a very critical taxonomical point of view.

Description: Bakhuizen van den Brink, Jr, R.C.: Een bijdrage tot de kennis van de Melastomataceae van den Maleischen Archipel in het bijzonder van die van Nederlandsch-Indi\xc3\xab. Thesis. Gouda 1943, VIII 31 pp. (in Dutch).\nExtract from the general and critical parts of the extensive study; no latin descriptions.

Description: The privilege of being able to examine numerous sheets of Lonicera in the U.S. Nat. Herbarium Washington, Jan. 1947, some in the Kew Herbarium, Nov. 1946, and some in the Leyden Herbarium, Oct. 1946, enabled me to make some further observations which clarify the status and distribution of the Malaysian species, which I preliminarily treated in the Journ. Arnold Arbor. 27 (1946) 442\xe2\x80\x94452, a little further. 1. Lonicera repens Zipp. ex Miq., Fl. Ind. Bat. 2: 128. 1856; cf. J. Arn. Arb. 27 (1946) 451, was referred by Miquel to L. chinensis, and belongs, according to Ind. Kew and Dr Rehder\xe2\x80\x99s paper to L. japonica Thunb. In the Leyden Herbarium there are 3 authentic sheets; of one the label reads \xe2\x80\x9cNew Guinea\xe2\x80\x9d, of an. other \xe2\x80\x9c? Java\xe2\x80\x9d and of the third \xe2\x80\x9c? Java. ? New Guinea\xe2\x80\x9d. All belong doubtless to L. japonica Thunb. and in my opinion this is a clear case of mislabelled specimens which came from Java, probably from specimens cultivated in the Botanic Gardens at Buitenzorg.

Description: The names Blumea intermedia Koster (syn. Bl. acutata DC. var. \xc3\x9f) and Blumea floresiana (Schultz-Bip.) Boerl. must be kept upright. Blumea humifusa (Miq.) Clarke var. monochasialis Koster has to be changed into Blumea tenella DC. var. monochasialis (Koster) Koster, for Blumea humifusa (Miq.) Clarke is a synonym of Blumea tenella DC.\nBlumea lacera (Burm.) DC. var. burmanni DC. is not a clearly distinguishable variety.\nBlumea runcinata DC. is a synonym of Blumea lacera (Burm.) DC.\nBlumea fasciculata DC. is a synonym of Blumea sessiliflora Decaisne, which is not a synonym of the closely related Blumea fistulosa (Roxb.) Kurz (syn. Bl. glomerata DC. and Bl. leptoclada DC.). Blumea chinensis (L.) DC. as well as Blumea semivestita DC. are a mixture of Blumea riparia (Bl.) DC. and Blumea bullata Koster.

Description: From his stay at Port Dickson on the Malay Peninsula at the beginning of 1946 Major Dr. L. D. Brongersma of the N I C A Detachment brought home several species of crabs. A list of this material which is now incorporated in the collections of the Museum of Natural History at Leiden is given below, while on some of the more interesting species some remarks are made.\nCoenobita cavipes Stimps. \xe2\x80\x94 26 specimens.\nClibanarius padavensis De Man. \xe2\x80\x94 1 specimen.\nClibanarius infraspinatus Hilg. \xe2\x80\x94 1 specimen.\nPetrolisthes speciosus (Dana). \xe2\x80\x94 1 \xe2\x99\x80.\nCamposcia retusa Latr. \xe2\x80\x94 2 \xe2\x99\x82\xe2\x99\x82, 1 \xe2\x99\x80.\nSchizophrys aspera (H. M. Edw.). \xe2\x80\x94 1 \xe2\x99\x82.\nNeptunus pelagicus L. \xe2\x80\x94 12 specimens, including 4 \xe2\x99\x82\xe2\x99\x82, 2 \xe2\x99\x80\xe2\x99\x80.\nCharybdis (Charybdis) helleri (A. M. Edw.). \xe2\x80\x94 1 \xe2\x99\x82.\nCharybdis (Charybdis) anisodon (De Haan). \xe2\x80\x94 1 \xe2\x99\x82.\nThalamita crenata Latr. \xe2\x80\x94 2 \xe2\x99\x82\xe2\x99\x82, 1 ovigerous \xe2\x99\x80.\nThalamita stimpsoni A. M. Edw. \xe2\x80\x94 1 \xe2\x99\x82, 1 \xe2\x99\x80, both young specimens.\nChlorodopsis pilumnoides (White). \xe2\x80\x94 1 juv. and a young Xanthid probably belonging here.\nOzius guttatus H. M. Edw. \xe2\x80\x94 1 \xe2\x99\x80.\nPilumnus vespertilio (Fabr.). \xe2\x80\x94 2 \xe2\x99\x82\xe2\x99\x82, 3 \xe2\x99\x80\xe2\x99\x80.\nPilumnus scabriusculus Ad. & White. \xe2\x80\x94 2 \xe2\x99\x82\xe2\x99\x82.\nPinnotheres borradailei Nob. \xe2\x80\x94 1 \xe2\x99\x80.\nOcypoda ceratophthalma (Pall.) \xe2\x80\x94 Many specimens.\nUca annulipes Latr. \xe2\x80\x94 2 \xe2\x99\x82\xe2\x99\x82.

Description: The collections of the South American Nematognathi in the Rijksmuseum van Natuurlijke Historie at Leiden, referred to in this publication as "Museum Leiden", and of those in the Zo\xc3\xb6logisch Museum at Amsterdam, referred to as "Museum Amsterdam", consist of valuable material, which for a very important part has not been studied yet.\nI feel very much obliged to Prof. Dr. H. Boschma who allowed me to start with the study of the Leiden collections and whom I offer here my sincere thanks. At the same time I want to express my gratitude towards Prof. Dr. L. F. de Beaufort, who has been so kind to place the collection of the Zoological Museum at Amsterdam at my disposal. Furthermore I am greatly indebted to Dr. F. P. Koumans at Leiden for his assistance and advice to solve the various problems which I met during my study.\nThe material dealt with here comes from a large number of collections of different collectors, from various areas of South America, it consists of 125 species, belonging to 14 families of the order Nematognathi. Contrary to the original expectations no adequate number of specimens from Surinam could be obtained to get a sufficient opinion about the occurrence of the various species, and, if possible, also about their distribution in this tropical American part of the Netherlands. On the whole the collections from Surinam were limited to the generally known species only. Pygidium gracilior Eigenm., hitherto not known from Surinam, forms an exception in this respect. Out of the 125 species described in the present paper only 41 originate from Surinam. At the beginning of Bleeker\'s (1864) investigations of the Nematognathi in the collections of the Museum Leiden and the Museum Amsterdam, there were 23 species from Surinam. During

Description: After a paper had been published i.a. on the species of Stevia of the collection mentioned in the heading\xc2\xb9) another Stevia from the same collection came into the author\xe2\x80\x99s hands. It proved to be new. The American genus Stevia has been treated in local revisions by B. L. Robinson (in Gray Herb. Harvard Univ. V, 90, 1930, 36\xe2\x80\x94159; 96, 1931, 28\xe2\x80\x9449; 100, 1932, 20\xe2\x80\x9469). Its floral characters are fairly uniform, but the pappus shows a great diversity. The 5 achenes in a head do not mature at the same time. The genus Stevia seems to have its greatest development in Bolivia, where it is represented by 44 species. The next representation is in Peru with 24 and in Argentina with 23 species.\nSection Eustevia, Robinson.