ALBERT

Description: CONTENTS\nIntroduction............... 3\nSystematic survey of the Limacidae of the central and western Canary Islands 5 Biogeographical notes on the Limacidae of the Canary Islands . . . . 21 Alphabetical list of the persons who collected or observed Limacidae in the Canary Islands.............. 31\nLiterature............... 32\nINTRODUCTION\nIn the spring of 1947 I was so fortunate as to join for some 9 weeks the Danish Zoological Expedition to the Canary Islands. During my stay I collected materials for the Rijksmuseum van Natuurlijke Historie at Leiden, paying special attention to the land- and freshwater Mollusca. This paper contains the first results of the examination of the Mollusca collected.\nMy Danish friends Dr. Gunnar Thorson and Dr. Helge Vols\xc3\xb8e generously put at my disposal the non-marine Mollusca they collected during their stay in the Canaries. When the material has been worked up, duplicates will be deposited in the Zoological Museum at Copenhagen.\nI am indebted to several persons who helped me in various ways in the investigations here published. Prof. Dr. N. Hj. Odhner (Stockholm) very kindly put at my disposal a MS list of all the Mollusca of the Canary Islands and their distribution, which he had compiled for private use. Mr. Hugh Watson (Cambridge) never failed to help me by examining or lending specimens, and in detailed letters gave me the benefit of his great experience.\nDuring my stay in Paris in March 1950 Dr. G. Ranson and Dr. A. Franc put at my disposal for examination the Canarian slugs present in the Mus\xc3\xa9um

Description: Exbucklandia R. W. Brown ( Bucklandia R. Br. non Pr. ex Sternb., Symingtonia Steen.) In an article on \xe2\x80\x9cAlterations in some fossil and living floras\xe2\x80\x9d (J. Wash. Ac. Sc. 36: 348. Oct. 1946) R. W. Brown proposed the new generic name Exbucklandia for the Hamamelidaceous genus Bucklandia R. Br., non Pr. ex Sternb., while describing a new fossil species from the United States. He also transferred B. populnea to the new genus. Unfortunately I had overlooked this publication when proposing Symingtonia to replace Bucklandia R. Br. (Acta Bot. Neerl. 1: 443\xe2\x80\x94444. 1952). Exbucklandia will have to be accepted for it in future. The Indo-Chinese species B. tonkinensis Lecomte should be referred to as Exbucklandia tonkinensis (Lecomte) Steen. comb. nov. I have to thank Dr E. H. Walker for pointing my attention to R. W. Brown\xe2\x80\x99s paper.

Description: This charming and handy book printed on excellent paper, with its numerous clear pictures of well-known Malayan plants, reminds one in many ways of Merrill\xe2\x80\x99s \xe2\x80\x9cPlant Life of the Pacific World\xe2\x80\x9d (MacMillan 1946, New York), which has perhaps served Prof. Holttum as an example. Its size being only slightly smaller than Merrill\xe2\x80\x99s book and the area covered being very considerably smaller, its descriptions of plants are naturally more detailed; the more so as only a choice has been made, in which the special interests of the author \xe2\x80\x94 ferns, orchids, gingers \xe2\x80\x94 are evident though not predominant.\nThe plants described are not regionally arranged. The 17 chapters are rather headed by names of life-forms, striking organs, and special habitats. As is pointed out in the Preface, the book is \xe2\x80\x9cintended primarily for the Malayan resident who wishes to begin a study of Malayan plants\xe2\x80\x9d. In this purpose the book will doubtless prove to be a success: the reader is gradually taught quite a bit of botany of various fields, morphology, anatomy, ecology, hybridisation, etc. These are demonstrated at plants which are within easy reach of the ordinary layman for which it is destined. Short opening and concluding chapters deal with general features of tropical plants and with the Malayan forest. Since the author is a well-known expert and the Malayan flora as here described is a very good example of any flora between, say, Calcutta and Fiji, it may well be useful to residents of many other countries as well.

Description: The first result of this survey of the wide genera which have endemic species in New Caledonia is certainly to confirm the impression that there is indeed a noteworthy geographical association between Madagascar and that island, even if it is only a particular aspect of a more general relationship between Madagascar and Australasia as a whole.\nBut the survey gives prominence also to another point, namely the unexpectedly small part that tropical Africa plays in the distribution of the genera reviewed. It almost seems as if there is some factor of exclusion affecting that great region, and there is no indication of any corresponding degree of relation between tropical Africa and New Caledonia such as has been detected between the latter and Madagascar.

Description: A study has been made of the Indo-Malaysian species of Cnestis. The mutual length ratio of sepals and petals, \xe2\x80\x94 brevi- and aequipetaly \xe2\x80\x94, is the main differentiating character for the species; there are no transitions. The areas of distribution overlap in the Malay Peninsula (fig. 1); brevipetalous types are known from the Malay Peninsula, Sumatra, Borneo and Celebes, aequipetalous types from Burma, Siam, Indo-China and the Andaman Islands, the Malay Peninsula and the Philippines. Fruits are of two different shapes: beaked in aequipetalae of the Andamans, Burma, Siam, and Indo-China, pear-shaped in remaining aequipetalae and in brevipetalae. Leaves tend to be longer and jugae more numerous in brevipetalae than in aequipetalae.\nOther characters do not have so clear a separating value, such as texture and indumentum of leaflets, indumentum of inflorescence, texture and indumentum of petals, length of stamens, type and length of pistils, length ratio of stamens and pistils. However, even on the strength of these characters there is some reason to distinguish both groups mentioned above. As to the indumentum of petals there is a remarkable cline in a decreasing sense from the Philippines to continental Asia, the Andamans and the Malay Peninsula and back to the east through the brevipetalae of Malay Peninsula, Sumatra, Borneo and Celebes.\nBrevi- and aequipetalae have been considered to represent two species, viz Cnestis platantha Griff. and Cnestis palala (Lour.) Merrill. The latter one has been divided into two subspecies, viz subsp. palala with beaked fruits and subsp. diffusa (Blanco) Andreas with pear-shaped fruits. For their area of distribution see fig. 1.\nIn many respects some plants of the Andamans, Burma, Siam, Indo-China (and the Malay Peninsula) are different from the remaining aequipetalae, but not in a uniform way as to the various characters. Although there are some arguments for a further taxonomic subdivision, we did not think it advisable to introduce such a division at present. Our classification differs from the division as given by Schellenberg (1938). This was caused by the material on one hand, being more heterogeneous than Schellenberg described it, and, on the other hand, by the fact that some of the diagnostic characters used by him, in our opinion were not fit for use as such. Therefore a revision of Schellenberg\xe2\x80\x99s system of the genus Cnestis seems desirable.

Description: In Madro\xc3\xb1o (1936) Herre has lamented the disappearance of lichen species through the disastrous interference of man. Unavoidably, the advance of civilised modern life is linked with destruction of the vegetation. This applies all the more as the endangered area is more densely populated and it certainly applies most alarmingly to the lichen flora of the Netherlands. Here, every way-side tree felled is an irreparable loss to the epiphytic lichen communities, every acre of heath burnt or turned into arable land is a blow to our stock of terrestrial lichen species, whereas the use of dry fertilisers and the spraying of orchards are very effective in killing any lichen in the neighbourhood that otherwise might have survived. A comparison of the material preserved in the older collections with what can be found nowadays, clearly shows what has gone lost. It is sad to think that an ever increasing number of species are on their way to total extermination.\nHowever, from a thorough investigation of the epiphytic communities of cryptogams latterly started by Mr J. J. Barkman, it becomes apparent that at least to some extent the losses may be compensated by the discovery of species hitherto overlooked or not recognised. It is on such and other finds that I intend to report from time to time.

Description: Though the new names published in Thunberg\xe2\x80\x99s \xe2\x80\x9cFlorida\xe2\x80\x9d have been entered in the Index Kewensis, few botanists have tried to verify the status and synonymy of the new species proposed in this 2-thesis booklet. Thunberg\xe2\x80\x99s names were entered in Juel\xe2\x80\x99s \xe2\x80\x9cPlantae Thunbergianae\xe2\x80\x9d (1918, 412 pp.).\nThe diagnoses are generally too short and vague to allow a definite opinion. Only Schott, Mueller Arg., and F. E. Wimmer have examined material of resp. the Araceae, Euphorbiaceae, Campanulaceae.

Description: Koorders, Fl. v. Tjibodas 2 (1923) 32\xe2\x80\x9446; Hochreutiner in Candollea 2 (1924\xe2\x80\x941926) 336\xe2\x80\x94359; Ochse, Indische Groenten (1931) 719\xe2\x80\x94722; Backer, Onkruidfl. Java Suiker (1930) 203\xe2\x80\x94209; Aimshoff in Blumea 5 (1942\xe2\x80\x941945) 515\xe2\x80\x94517. Miss Dr G. J. Amshoff started the revision of the Javanese Urticaceae, but left the definitive preparation to me.\nUrtica dioica L. and U. urens L. have been erroneously recorded for Java (Miquel, Fl. Ind. bat. 1\xc2\xb2, 1859, 227; Koorders, Exk. Fl. Java 2, 1912, 126). To my knowledge no specimens were ever collected there nor elsewhere in the Malay Archipelago.

Description: Gynostemma hederifolia (Decne) Cogn. in D.C., Monogr. Phan. 3: 916, 1881. (\xe2\x80\x9chederaefolia\xe2\x80\x9d). \xe2\x80\x94 Sicyos hederifolius Decaisne in Nouv. Ann. Mus. Hist. Nat. Paris 3: 450, 1834.\nKANGEAN Island (N. of Bali): Gua Peteng, 1 M alt.; Backer 26948 (BO), 15-III1919, \xe2\x99\x82, filaments connate up to the top, leaves far more densely puberulous than in the next specimen.

Description: Little attention has been paid till now to the algae, transported to the Netherlands coast on drifting objects. About a century ago T. D. Vrijdag Zijnen and G. Bisschop (near Scheveningen, \xc2\xb1 1845), and L. H. Buse (between Wijk aan Zee and Zandvoort, \xc2\xb1 1840\xe2\x80\x941847) were the first to pay attention to this subject. The material collected, especially that by the first two investigators, is mentioned in the Prodromus Fl. Bat. (1853). The book of Van Goor (1923) contains a chapter on these algae, in which, however, only few new observations occur. The author is much indebted to Dr Josephine Th. Koster for her kind help, as well as to Dr S. J. v. Ooststroom. The material, collected by Vrijdag Zijnen, Bisschop and Buse is almost completely present in the collections of the \xe2\x80\x98Rijksherbarium\xe2\x80\x99 and the \xe2\x80\x98Koninklijke Ncderlandse Botanische Vereniging\xe2\x80\x99, Leiden. The material, collected during the last few years has for the greater part been brought together by the present author, and furthermore especially by K. Swennen (Den Helder), J. Stock (Amsterdam), A. Mulder (Haarlem) and P. Leenhouts (Scheveningen). This material belongs to the collection of the Rijksherbarium, Leiden, but most of it is, for the time being, put under the charge of the \xe2\x80\x9cComit\xc3\xa9 ter Bestudering van de Nederlandse Mariene Flora en Fauna\xe2\x80\x9d (\xe2\x80\x9cCommittee on the Netherlands\xe2\x80\x99 Marine Flora and Fauna\xe2\x80\x9d) and temporarily preserved in \xe2\x80\x9cHet Filiaal\xe2\x80\x9d, Leiden.