ALBERT

Description: Nooit zal ik die Donderdagmorgen 10 Augustus 1944 vergeten, toen ik op het laboratorium hoorde dat in de krant — wie las dat vod nog in die tijd — stond dat UITTIEN gefusilleerd was. Het drong eerst niet goed tot mij door. Het kon niet waar zijn. De krant werd gehaald. Ja, daar stond zijn naam in een lange lijst van lotgenoten en het verschrikkelijke, het onherroepelijke, begon langzaam tot mij door te dringen. Koud en gevoelloos stond daar het bericht, van een leugenachtige argumentatie voorzien, dat men ook UITTIEN, die zachtmoedige, gevoelige, intelligente man, had vermoord. Woorden waren hiervoor op dat moment niet te vinden. Ik had alleen behoefte zijn oudste zuster, waaraan hij zeer gehecht was, op te zoeken. Door de slechte treinverbindingen kon ik eerst de volgende dag naar Brummen. Daar trof ik een diep verslagen kring van familie en vrienden van UITTIEN. Wij konden het ons nog zo moeilijk realiseren dat wij hem niet weer zouden zien. Eerst nu wij hem voor goed verloren hadden beseften wij in volle omvang hoe groot wel de plaats was die hij in ons aller leven innam. Van nature had UITTIEN weinig belangstelling voor politiek. Hij vond dat hij daar niets van wist en er dus ook niet aan mee behoefde te doen. Hij had dan ook de gewoonte zijn stembiljet blanco, ja zelfs zonder het open te vouwen, weer meteen in de bus te laten glijden, zeer tot ongenoegen van de partij-mannen die bij een dergelijke gelegenheid op het stembureau plegen te zitten. Wel was hij met hart en ziel het Koninklijk Huis toegedaan. Later heeft hij zijn blanco stemmerij opgegeven, daar het hem duidelijk was dat hij op die manier ongewild toch wel eens de door hem toen reeds verafschuwde N.S.B. zou kunnen steunen. De gang van zaken in Duitsland opende hem de ogen en reeds voor de oorlog liet hij zijn antinazi instelling duidelijk blijken. Zo zond hij na de overval van de Duitsers op Tsjecho-Slowakije een paar overdrukjes aan een botanicus in dat land met op het adres: .... Tsjecho-Slovakia, temporarily occupied by Germany. Dit had tot zijn intens genoegen een geheel onverwacht gevolg, n.1. een stroom van overdrukjes van allerlei Tsjechische botanici waarvan hij nog nooit gehoord had. Na de overval op ons land, het bombardement van Rotterdam, dat diepe indruk op hem maakte, en de daarop volgende bezetting, was UITTIEN dan ook een felle tegenstander van Duitsers en N.S.B.ers. Hij uitte dat waar hij kon in woord en daad. Op de Middelbare Koloniale Landbouwschool te Deventer waar hij leraar was, leidde dat tot wrijvingen met een N.S.B.-collega, die alles aan zijn Duitse meesters rapporteerde. Op 31 Aug. 1941, de verjaardag van H.M. de Koningin, kwam het tot een ernstige, maar niet onvermakelijke botsing met de Deventer zwarthemden, vanwege het feit dat hij binnenshuis met een oranjedas rondliep. Zijn huis aan de Dahliastraat werd door de N.S.B.ers belegerd, hetgeen een grote volksoploop en kloppartij tot gevolg had. Korte tijd daarna werd hij wegens dit feit en zijn „tartende” houding tegen de N.S.B.-collega ontslagen. Daar het departement een gunstige wachtgeldregeling maakte was dit geheel tot zijn genoegen. Sindsdien toch kon UITTIEN zich met nog meer energie wijden aan de taak, die hij zich ten bate van de oorlogvoering gesteld had, nl. het bijhouden van een uitvoerig dagboek en het verspreiden van door de radio opgevangen nieuwsberichten en van illegaal uitgegeven geschriften. Het is buitengewoon jammer dat dit dagboek in de laatste oorlogsmaanden door brand verloren is gegaan. Zijn folkloristische neigingen kwamen hem bij het samenstellen van dit dagboek goed van pas. Dagelijks tekende hij alles aan wat hij hoorde. Elk nieuwtje, elk gerucht, elke anecdote, met nauwkeurige opgave van plaats, tijd enz. Hoewel dus alles door elkaar kwam te staan, nl. alleen in de volgorde zoals hij de berichten kreeg, was het toch een verhaal dat men met spanning zat te lezen. Dat kwam natuurlijk ook vooral door de originele wijze waarop hij het gehoorde op schrift stelde. Zijn dagboek zou ongetwijfeld voor de geschiedschrijving van deze jaren van belang zijn geweest. Hoe ver zijn medewerking aan de illegale bladen zich uitstrekte, kan ik niet zeggen, daar hij dat begrijpelijk ook voor zijn familie en naaste vrienden verborgen hield. Wellicht heeft hij wel eens iets in deze bladen geschreven, maar zijn voornaamste medewerking was zeker de verspreiding. Op 29 Januari 1944 werd hij, op grond van verdenking van medewerking aan de verspreiding van „Trouw”, gearresteerd en naar het concentratiekamp Vught overgebracht. Voor zover wij wisten was er echter geen enkel positief bewijs tegen hem. Dat was dan ook waarschijnlijk de reden dat hij zelf dacht vrij te komen. De weinige brieven die hij uit zijn gevangenschap mocht schrijven waren merendeels opgewekt en getuigden van zijn onvergankelijke gevoel voor humor. Helaas werden zijn optimistische gedachten, geuit in zijn laatste brief, niet tot werkelijkheid. Hij schreef daarin dat hij nu wel spoedig dacht thuis te komen. In plaats daarvan werd echter zijn groep plotseling voor een standgerecht gebracht, en niet voor een gewone militaire rechtbank waarop zij recht hadden. De zaken gingen voor de Duitsers in die dagen slecht. De Amerikanen en Engelsen waren in het Westen doorgebroken. Vermoedelijk is er uit Berlijn een bericht gekomen, dat maar weer eens een voorbeeld moest worden gesteld om de schrik erin te houden. Zo werden deze mensen zonder dat iemand iets van de gang van zaken afwist ter dood veroordeeld en gefusilleerd. Weer was op een misdadige wijze met verkrachting van elk begrip van humaniteit en rechtsgevoel, aan 23 landgenoten het leven ontnomen, rouw en verbeten woede achterlatend.

Description: Mr C.T. White is to be congratulated on being presented with, the Mueller Memorial Medal awarded by the Adelaide Meeting of the Australian and New Zealand Association for the Advancement of Science, Aug. 1946. This award is in recognition of his work on the systematic botany of Queensland. Dr Ir J.Ph. Pfeiffer, Director of Research, B.P.M.-lab., Amsterdam, died Nov. 18, 1947, at Amsterdam, 58 years old. He was formerly wood-technologist, and collected plants in Simaloer Island, NW Sumatra.

Description: Index Kewensis. Suppl. 10. (1936-1940). Clarendon Press, Oxford, £4/4. (1947). Check List of British vascular plants (Journ. Ecol. 33 (1946) 308-347). Nomenclature accepted by the Brit. Ecol. Soc. to uniformize the binary names used for British plants.

Description: We are glad to be able to add to the list of herbaria which have agreed to send on loan herbarium specimens to collaborators of the Flora Malesiana: Herbarium of the Forestry Department, Sandakan, British North Borneo. Mr H.G. Keith, Conservator of Forests is in charge. Herbarium of the Forestry Department, Lae, Territory of New Guinea. Mr J.S. Womersley, Forest Botanist, is in charge (see p. 61).

Description: Dr C.A. Backer is now preparing the MS. on the Orchidaceae for the Flora of Java on the basis of a MS. by the late Dr J.J. Smith. Mr J. Monachino has finished his revision of the genus Alstonia (Apoc.); it is expected to be published early in 1949 in ”Pacific Science”, Hawaii.

Description: It is a great pleasure to announce that the technical difficulties delaying the printing of Flora Malesiana have now been overcome. The first part of volume 4 is in the press and, in all probability, will appear towards the end of this year. Sample sheets of volumes 1, 2, and 3 will be added to the initial instalment of volume 4. Owing to a generous grant by the Netherlands Indies Government of this first issue of the 4th vol. 2500 copies will be printed and distributed to all individual botanists and institutions which are believed to have an interest in the Flora, in order to enable them to form an idea of the scope, execution, and costs of subscription of the work. Those receiving this Bulletin will also receive the initial part. It is expected that volume 1 – which will be issued as one whole – will be in print at the end of this year.

Description: ( (Report in the ”Gardens’ Bulletin, Singapore”, vol. XI, pt 4, 1947). Prior to the Japanese attack on Malaya, most of the senior staff of the Gardens were seconded for other duties under the Department of Food Control and Information, for at least part of the time. The result was that botanical work was reduced, and considerable arrears of unnamed and undistributed specimens accumulated. The Gardens were maintained as usual, with the addition of demonstration plots of vegetables.

Description: In 1826 REINWARDT published in ”Sylloge Plantarum” &c, vol. 2, pp. 1-15 under the title ”Nova plantarum indicarum genera” an article containing descriptions of some Malaysian genera of phanerogams. Amongst them is described on pag 1: Angiopetalum punctatum Reinw. n.g.n.sp. from Java. Though assigned to the Myrsinaceae by DALIA TORRE & HARMS this genus has hitherto remained obscure, and has not even been mentioned by MIQUEL. However, there is a name Allopetalum punctatum REINW. mentioned by SCHEFFER (De Myrsin. 1967, 93) as a MS. name in the synonymy of Ardisia pumila BL., also mentioned by MEZ (Pfl. Reich 9 (1902) 171) for that plant, which is now commonly known as Labisia pumila (BL.) B. & H. The type specimens of Allopetalum punctatum REINW. at Leyden (sheets 908.133.- 614 and 903.255 – 190) are undoubtedly the type specimens of Angiopetalum punctatum REINW. The name under which this species was published differs from that found in REINWARDT’s handwriting hut this is of small significance. Many name-changes occur in the materials assembled by KUHL & VAN HASSELT, ZIPPEL, REINWAKDT (and BLUME) whose herbaria were left in BLUME’s care. On the type sheet of Orescia montana REINW. in the same paper of REINWARDT’s I found on the labels the following MS. names: Lysimachia montana BL., Phaemeria montana, Rumeria montana and Lysimachia cuspidata BL, an embarrassing choice from which only the last one has been validly published. In the case of Angiopetalum, REINWARDT who had probably the herbarium not at his disposal copied the name from MS. notes, the herbarium being with BLUME either in Java or at Brussels. Later he hardly paid any attention to phytography or nomenclature.

Description: Small trees, mostly deciduous, bark gummy, wood soft, roots thickened, pungent; trunk often inflated. Leaves spread, imperfectly 2—4-imparipinnate; tissue with myrosin cells; pinnae opposite, provided with stipitate glands at the base of the petiolules and pinnae. Leaflets small, opposite, entire, all articulated. Stipules represented by blunt knobs. Flowers bisexual, zygomorphic, white (or yellow streaked red), in axillary panicles. Calyx tube short, as a hypanthium; lobes 5 imbricate, spreading or reflexed, separately dropping. Petals 5 free, anterior one largest and erect, others reflexed, posterior smallest. Disk lining the calyx tube, with a short free margin bearing the androecium. Perfect stamens 5 epipetalous; anthers dorsifixed, 1-celled, oblong, when lengthwise opened broader. Staminodes 5, subulate, with or without rudimentary anthers. Ovary superior, shortly stalked, 1-celled with 3 parietal placentas. Style filiform, stigma small. Ovules ~, in 2 series on each placenta. Capsule linear, beaked, 3—6-angled; valves thick, spongy, on the inside with pitted cavities in 1 row along the median line. Seeds 3-winged (or exalate), body roundish large. Embryo exalbuminous, straight, containing oil. Distr. Ca 10 spp., confined to the semi-arid countries of Somaliland, Madagascar, SW. Africa, NE. Africa, Asia Minor, 2 spp. in India.

Description: Small trees, shrubs or twining woody plants, rarely herbs; branches terete. Glands present in various parts. Indumentum consisting of simple hairs, or in Viburnum sometimes lepidote; glandular hairs mostly present. Stems often pithy. Leaves decussate, simple or deeply divided (Sambucus), sometimes provided with pitted or cup-shaped glands exuding resin. Stipules absent or very small. Flowers ♀, actinomorphic or zygomorphic, mostly cymosely arranged, 4—5-merous; outer flowers in an inflorescence sometimes differing from the normal ones, rarely ( Sambucus p.p.) some fls aborted into extra-floral nectaries. Calyx adnate to the ovary, (4—)5-fid or -toothed, mostly constricted below the limb; sepals often enlarged in fruit. Corolla epigynous, gamopetalous, sometimes 2-lipped, lobes mostly imbricate in bud. Stamens inserted on the corolla tube, alternating with the lobes, extrorse or introrse. Anthers free, 2-celled, dorsifixed, versatile, cells parallel, opening lengthwise, mostly introrse; filaments sometimes reflexed or curved in bud. Ovary inferior, 1-(2-)3-5(-8)-celled, in fruit cells sometimes partly abortive. Style terminal, often slender with one knoblike stigma, or 3 short partly connate styles. Ovules 1(-~), pendulous or axile. Fruit a drupe or berry, rarely a capsule. Seeds often only one per fruit, often with bony testa. Endosperm copious, sometimes ruminate; embryo straight, often small and linear, axial, cotyledons oval or oblong. Distr. Ca 10-14 genera, mainly distributed on the N. hemisphere, in the tropics mostly confined to the mountains, on the S. hemisphere only Viburnum and Sambucus, an endemic genus in New Zealand, two monotypic endemic genera in New Caledonia, in Australia only Sambucus in the eastern part.

Description: Annual or perennial herbs or shrubs, often fleshy, glabrous, papillate or hairy. Leaves opposite or alternate, exstipulate, sometimes seemingly wanting, stalked or sessile, entire, dentate-serrate-lobed or irregularly gashed. Flowers solitary, 2—3-nate or glomerate, usually sessile, either axillary or in terminal or axillary dense or interrupted spikes or panicles, ♀ or unisexual, monochlamydous, rarely achlamydous, small; bracts present or absent, usually small, rarely leafy. Perianth herbaceous or sometimes scarious, rarely (in ♀) absent, 3—5-partite with (in bud) imbricate segments, or sometimes almost entirely gamophyllous and then shortly lacerate-dentate or unilaterally cleft, persistent, after anthesis accrescent or not. Stamens often the same number as tepals and opposite to them, sometimes fewer, usually inserted on or near base of perianth; filaments free or shortly connate; anthers dorsifixed or inserted in a basal cleft, 2-celled (4-locellate); cells bursting longitudinally. Ovary free or at the base adnate to the perianth, 1-celled; ovule 1, basal, sessile and erect or suspended from a funicle; styles or stigmas 2-5, linear. Utricle either enclosed by the perianth or not, indehiscent or rarely operculate; seed erect, oblique or horizontal, usually compressed; endosperm mostly present, peripheral, surrounding the embryo; embryo annular or spirally twisted. Distr. Species numerous, inhabitants of the temperate and tropical zones of both hemispheres.

Description: Delicate, annual or perennial herbs, aquatic and then either entirely submersed, or floating in the upper part, or, in humid localities, not rarely terrestrial and creeping, with slender stems. Leaves opposite, at the summits of floating stems often spuriously rosulate, exstipulate, small, linear, elliptic, oblong or spathulate, entire, herbaceous, in the Mal. sp. triplenerved. Flowers minute, unisexual, axillary, solitary or rarely one ♂ and one ♀ flower from the same axil, often with 2 caducous, transversal, opposite, tender concave bracts. Calyx and corolla absent, ♂: Stamen 1; filament thin, anther 2-celled, cells bursting lengthwise, the slits becoming confluent at the top. ♀: Ovary sessile or subsessile, 4-lobed, 4-celled. Ovule solitary in each cell, pendulous from the top of the cavity. Styles 2, free, often long, papillose. Fruit 4-lobed, with longitudinally margined or winged lobes. Testa membranous; endosperm fleshy; embryo terete, straight. Distr. Only genus in the family, worldwide distributed, not yet known from S. Africa and in various regions scarce, in Malaysia apparently very rare, the only record proving its being indigenous is from the New Guinean highlands. Because of their small size terrestrial forms are easily overlooked.

Description: Trees (or shrubs), often deciduous, producing gum and an orange juice. Leaves spread, palmatilobed, often with domatia in the axils of the main ribs; stipules caducous. Flowers actinomorphic, bisexual, showy, mostly golden-yellow, paniculate or racemose. Sepals 5 imbricate. Petals 5, imbricate or contorted, emarginate. Stamens ~, with free filaments, equal or subequal; anthers 2-celled, linear, basifixed, opening by introrse, short, often confluent pore-like slits. Ovary 1-celled with laminal placentas projecting into the cell, or perfectly or imperfectly 3-celled, the upper portion remaining 1-celled; ovules ~, style simple, stigma punctiform. Capsule 3—5-valved, valves of the endocarp separating from and alternating with those of the pericarp. Seeds covered by woolly hairs, mostly cochleate-reniform; endosperm copious, rich in oil; embryo large, conforming to the shape of the seed; cotyledons broad. Distr. Ca 15 spp., mostly in trop. and subtropical America, some in trop. Africa and SE. Asia, 3 species in N. Australia, rare in Malaysia; G. gillivrayi is possibly the only native Malaysian species. LAM assumed the genus to belong to the ‘antarctic’ type(Blumea 1 (1935) 135), but it is manifestly peri-tropical.

Description: Evergreen, glabrous trees or shrubs, without resin-tubes. Leaves spread, simple, entire, more or less crowded towards the ends of the shoots, shining, exstipulate; midrib sulcate; shoots with perular terminal buds. Branches often in pseudowhorls. Inflorescences terminal, sometimes lateral, generally not exceeding the leaves. Flowers on the ultimate axis in fascicles of 3, towards the end solitary, pedicellate, bracteate. Calyx deeply 5-lobed, fleshy, persistent, petaloid, lobes inequal, concave, imbricate, 2 outermost smallest. Petals 5, thinner than the sepals, inserted at the margin of the disk-like receptacle. Stamens 5, attached to the base of the petals; filaments flattened or terete, slightly thickened towards the base; anthers dorsifixed, dehiscing lengthwise, intrors. Staminodes petaloid, dentate in the upper half, top mostly pointed, alternating with the petals. Disk glands 5, ovoid to ellipsoid, epistaminodial. Ovary ovoid, originally 2-celled, one cell soon abortive. Styles 1-2; stigma punctiform. Ovule 1, pendulous, anatropous. Fruit drupaceous, or a nut, with fibrous endocarp. Testa membranous; cotyledons planoconvex; albumen absent. Distr. Four spp., one each in New Zealand and adjacent islands, N. Caledonia, the New Hebrides, and N. Queensland & E. Malaysia.

Description: Mostly perennial, paludose, grass-like herbs with fibrous roots; stembase very rarely thickened, often profusely producing shoots. Leaves basal, distichous on each shoot, ensiform, linear or filiform, sometimes twisted; sheaths with a membranous margin (in Mal. spp.) producing mucilage (?always), with or without a short ligule; limb glabrous or with numerous, small hard papillae, sometimes with a stout nerve in either margin. Flowers ♀♂, in terminal, few- to many-flowered heads, 3-merous, yellow to white, ephemeral, each in the axil of a conspicuous bract; bracts conchate, imbricate, spirally arranged, lower ones sterile; one to few flowers simultaneously in anthesis. Peduncles scape-like, terete to compressed, sometimes winged or ribbed, glabrous or with numerous hard papillae, at the base with some sheaths provided with a short limb. Bracts entire, ciliate, fimbriate or lacerate, with one complete main nerve and some complete or incomplete longitudinal secondary (descending) nerves, in the apical part mostly with a small minutely-papillose field. Calyx zygomorphic; lateral sepals navicular, with entire, dentate or ciliate crest, wings membranous, entire, glabrous or ciliate; median sepal membranous, spathelliform or cap-shaped, enveloping the corolla, mostly obovate, 1-3(-5)-nerved, pushed out by the corolla in anthesis(?always). Corolla actinomorphic, ephemeral; petals with an orbicular to obovate limb and a long, narrow claw, free, cohering mutually or by the staminodes. Stamens mostly 3 fertile epipetalous inserted on the petals and 3 alternating staminodes, staminodes rarely absent, or all stamens fertile; filaments short; anthers basifix, dehiscing lengthwise extrorsely. Ovary superior, sessile to stipitate (in Australian spp. sometimes with 3 hard swellings at the top), 1- or 3-celled, or incompletely 3-celled. Placentas parietal, central, or basal, with ~ ovules; styles filiform, apex 3-fid, stigmas mostly capitate. Fruit shape similar to that of the ovary but larger, loculicidally 3-valved. Seeds ellipsoid to obovoid, often ribbed, with a long funicle. Distr. Xyridaceae are confined to the tropics throughout the world including the southern parts of North America; east of Malaysia and Australia hitherto only recorded from the Patau group (Korror) and New Caledonia.

Description: The Flora Malesiana is not preceded by a general key enabling one to identify any unknown native or wild plant to the family or genus to which it belongs. This is certainly a serious lack and presents a formidable handicap to inexperienced taxonomists in rapid naming current collections. However, there are several forcing arguments for omitting—at present—such an attempt which in itself would present no facile task, and could be accomplished only by a taxonomist thoroughly acquainted with the Malaysian flora. One could of course use some world key as a basis and cut out the entries leading to genera or families not represented in the Malaysian flora, but this procedure would be unsatisfactory, specially as these world keys make little use of vegetative characters; the latter appear to me very important specially in the earlier forks of the keys.

Description: Annual or perennial, unarmed or spinous, bitter herbs or undershrubs, often glandular-hairy. Stem terete, farctate, with a peripheral whorl of air-vessels. Leaves spread, simple, entire, exstipulate. Flowers ♀, actinomorphic, solitary, opposite or between the leaves, or by stunting of the leaves, more or less arranged in a racemiform or paniculiform inflorescence, distinctly pedicelled, lilac blue. Calyx persistent, 5-partite to near the base, segments lanceolate, imbricate in bud, after anthesis not or hardly accrescent. Corolla gamopetalous, deeply 5-partite; limb rotate; segments imbricate in bud, oval, obtuse. Stamens 5, free, inserted in the throat of the corolla, alternating with the segments; filaments filiform from a broadened base, glabrous or papillate; anthers 2-celled, bifid at the base and apex, opening lengthwise. Disk absent. Ovary superior, 2- (rarely 3-, very rarely more-) celled; placentas adnate to the dissepiment, spongy, entire or in cross-section bifid; styles 2 (rarely 3 or more), free; stigmas capitate-clavate. Ovules ~. Capsule globose or ellipsoid, loculicid, or both loculicid and septicid, 2(rarely more)-valved, or bursting irregularly. Seeds ~, very small, longitudinally ribbed; endosperm small, straight. Distr. Species ± 20, in the tropics of both hemispheres; in Malaysia 2, of which one indigenous, the other introduced and naturalized in Java.

Description: Rhizomes (rarely spiny) producing annual, mostly twining shoots, in Malaysia twining either to the right (fig. 4c) or the left (fig. 4a). Stems consisting of a main stem and sterile branches, both bearing leafless flowering axes. Leaves petiolate, generally cordate, simple and entire or palmately lobed, or palmately compound, except in the latter triplinerved; apex generally glandular, developed before the blade (forerunner tip); blade usually glandular on the lower side chiefly towards the base. Flowers hermaphrodite or dioecious, ♀ with staminodes, ♂ without even a rudimentary ovary, actinomorphic, 3-merous, mostly inconspicuous and greenish, ♂ often massed together and scented. Tepals in two whorls of 3. Stamens in 2 whorls of 3, the inner sometimes sterile; anthers usually introrse. Torus an urceolate, perianthoid chamber in Stenomeris, a saucer or cup in many spp. of Dioscorea, fleshy in Dioscorea § Enantiophyllum, in some spp. enlarged into a cone making the stamens appear to be connate. Style 1 with 3 bifid stigmas. Ovary 3-locular, inferior, sometimes separated from the perianth by a constriction. Ovules 2 in each cell or ~ (in Stenomeris), anatropous. Fruit a capsule, but it breaks up rather than dehisces in Trichopus. Seeds winged or wingless (in Trichopus); endosperm horny, embryo in a marginal pocket. Distr. Ca 9 genera and about 600 spp. (Dioscorea large, the other genera small or monotypic). Pantropic with considerable extensions into temperate regions. The Stenomerideae and Trichopodeae are restricted to the warm humid regions where Nepenthes grows and their geologic history must have been that of Nepenthes: they may be regarded as the survivors of the hermaphrodite ancestry of the Dioscoreeae.

Description: Herbs or shrubs, sometimes parasitic, usually with twining stems, occasionally prostrate or creeping, or erect, very rarely trees, often with milky juice. Leaves mostly spirally arranged, in parasitic species absent or nearly so, usually petioled; petiole sometimes with extra-floral nectaries. Stipules absent, pseudostipules (leaves of axillary shoot) rarely present. Inflorescences mostly cymose, one- to many-flowered, with mostly opposite or subopposite bracts at the base of the cymes or under the solitary flowers; rarely racemose. Flowers generally hermaphrodite, actinomorphic, rarely slightly zygomorphic, usually 5-merous, rarely 4-merous, various in size and colour, often showy. Sepals usually free, imbricate, with quincuncial aestivation, often persistent, sometimes accrescent in fruit. Corolla sympetalous, of various shapes, often funnel-shaped or campanulate, more rarely rotate, salver-shaped or urceolate; the limb nearly entire or more or less deeply lobed, often contorted-plicate in bud, or valvate or induplicate-valvate. Stamens isomerous, alternating with the corolla-lobes, adnate to the corolla, with usually slender, often filiform filaments and introrse or laterally and longitudinally dehiscing anthers. Pollen smooth or spinulose. Disk mostly present, annular or cupular. Ovary superior, mostly of 2 carpels, 2- or 1-celled, sometimes 4-celled by development of accessory partitions, rarely of 3 carpels and 3-celled; ovules 2 in each carpel, sessile, erect, anatropous. Style 1, often filiform, simple or forked, or 2 free styles, rarely very short or absent. Stigma entire or 2-lobed, rarely 3-lobed, or stigmas 2-4, of various shape, globular or ellipsoid to filiform, sometimes applanate, rarely peltate, kidney-shaped, conical or funnel-shaped. Fruit a capsule dehiscing by valves or circumscissile or irregularly dehiscing, rarely a berry or nut-like. Seeds as many as ovules or fewer; endosperm cartilaginous; cotyledons generally folded, sometimes obscure or absent. Distr. Ca 55 genera, with ca 1650 spp., widely distributed in the tropical, subtropical and temperate regions of both hemispheres; the greater part of the species in the tropics and subtropics of America and Asia. The larger genera Cuscuta (ca 165 spp.), Convolvulus (ca 250 spp.) and Ipomoea (ca 500 spp.) nearly throughout the range of the family but Convolvulus more in the temperate parts and Ipomoea more in the tropics and subtropics. Other large genera as Evolvulus (ca 100 spp.) and Jacquemontia (ca 120 spp.) nearly confined to America. Argyreia (ca 90 spp.) confined to tropical Asia. Malaysia, and a single sp. in Australia, and Merremia (ca 80 spp.) circumtropical. Several monotypic or small genera in E. Africa, Madagascar, and Australia.

Description: It is not without some pride and much satisfaction that the present volume, fourth planned in the series, second in sequence of publication, is brought to a successful end. Satisfaction I feel through the fact that the scheme and aim of this work is not only understood by the scientific-botanical world, but has also been accepted in the administrative world: Notwithstanding the long term scope of the work, the High Government of the Republic of Indonesia, having realized the essential value of basic scientific work in the natural sciences for the welfare of the future generations of its young nation, has been instrumental in authorizing the Director of Kebun Raya Indonesia (Botanic Gardens of Indonesia, Bogor) to create a Flora Malesiana Foundation. Sponsored by the Indonesian Government, this Foundation knits together the work and interest of the Herbarium Bogoriense of Kebun Raya Indonesia and the Netherlands Rijksherbarium at Leyden, the direction of which have officially agreed to a long-range close co-operation.

Description: Halophobous, aquatic or palustrial perennial herbs, rooting in the mud or freefloating. Stem erect or floating, solid, with numerous air-chambers as are the petioles. Leaves rosulate or alternate, or solitary at the top of the stem, emersed, floating or submerged, broad or narrow, curvinerved (when emersed); petioles sheathing at the base. Flowers ♀, ephemerous, mostly in racemiform, spiciform, subumbelliform or paniculiform inflorescences which are subtended by 1-2 spathelike or tubular leaf-sheaths, rarely solitary or pairwise in the leaf-axils. Bracts minute or absent. Flowers often simultaneously or centrifugally expanding. Perianth choriphyllous or gamophyllous, 6-merous, actinomorphic or zygomorphic, blue or lilac, rarely yellow, after anthesis marcescent and tightly including the ovary or the fruit. Stamens 6 or 3, rarely 1, on the base, in the tube or in the throat of the perianth, often unequal; filaments free; anthers 2-celled, cells bursting lengthwise, rarely opening by pores. Ovary superior, sessile, 3-celled, with axile placentas or 1-celled with 3 parietal or with 1 apical placenta. Ovules numerous or 1 and then pendulous from the apex of the cell. Style 1; stigma entire or minutely 3-lobed. Fruit a 3-valved capsule or indehiscent. Seed(s) longitudinally ribbed. Embryo central, terete, straight, hardly shorter than the copious, mealy endosperm. Distr. About 8 small genera and ± 25 species, 6 genera confined to the New World, one in Madagascar, one widely distributed in the Old World; in Malaysia one native genus, one introduced and abundantly naturalized, and one occasionally cultivated as an ornamental.

Description: Erect tall annual, usually branched. Leaves simple, with 2 free stipules, in the lower part of the stem opposite, in the higher part spirally arranged, long-petioled, palmate, 3—11-foliolate. Flowers (♂) (♀) or mostly (♂♀). Male flowers in short, dense cymes, which are united into lax, foliate, terminal panicles, very shortly pedicelled. Tepals 5, free, oblong, membranous, imbricate. Stamens 5, epitepalous; filaments erect and short in bud, linear, with a narrowed apex; anthers comparatively large, basifixed, 2-celled, cells opening longitudinally, rudimentary ovary absent. Female flowers solitary in the axil of a small, primary, membranous, entire bract closely enveloping the ovary, each enveloped by a spathaceous, conspicuous, acuminate, secondary bract. Perianth absent. Ovary sessile, 1-celled; style central; stigmas 2, sessile, long, filiform, caducous. Ovule solitary, pendulous. Achene closely enveloped by the much enlarged, secondary bract, broadly oval, with a concave rimmed base, much compressed, faintly keeled on the lateral margins; pericarp smooth, hard, crustaceous, easily splitting into two halves; albumen unilateral, scanty, fleshy; embryo large, horseshoe-shaped; cotyledons large; radicle long. Distr. Monotypic, native of Central Asia, cultivated in tropical Asia, naturalized in N. America.

Description: Small trees or erect shrubs. Leaves spirally arranged, simple, petioled, entire, palmatinerved, densely red-dotted. Stipules small, very caducous. Flowers in terminal corymbs or panicles, actinomorphic, ♀, rather large. Pedicel with 5-6 apical glands. Sepals 4-5, free, imbricate in bud, falling off as soon as the flower expands. Petals 4-7, free, imbricate in bud. Stamens numerous, inserted on an annular hypogynous disk; filaments thin, free; anthers horseshoe-shaped, passing over the top of the filament and with both ends closely applied to i , 2-celled; cells opening in the middle (on the top of the filament) by short slits which unite into a spuriously apical pore. Ovary superior, usually bristly, 1-celled, with 2 opposite parietal slightly intruding placentas. Style 1, sinuous, rather thick; stigma 2-dentate. Ovules very numerous. Capsule compressed contrary to the placentas, usually softly prickly, rarely smooth, loculicidally bivalved; endocarp membranous, separating from the valves. Seeds numerous, obovoid, angular; testa fleshy, very densely studded with small, round, red, sessile glands; albumen well-developed, not oil-containing; embryo rather large. Distr. Monotypic, native and cultivated in tropical America; cultivated in many other tropical countries.

Description: Annual (?)laticiferous herbs, with the habit of Phytolacca. Stem erect, somewhat succulent. Leaves spirally arranged, simple, entire, exstipulate. Inflorescences terminal, densely spicate, acropetal. Flowers subtended by a bract and two bracteoles, bisexual, actinomorphic. Calyx tube adnate to the ovary; segments 5, united below, imbricate, connivent, persistent. Corolla campanulate-urceolate, perigynous; lobes 5, imbricate. Stamens 5, epipetalous, alternating with the corolla lobes; filaments short; anthers rounded, 2-locular, dehiscing longitudinally. Ovary semi-inferior, 2-locular; style short, stigma capitate; ovules attached to large spongy stipitate axile placentas. Capsule cuneate-obconic, 2-locular, membranous, circumscissile; seeds ~, minute, oblong, rugose-costate, albumen very scanty or none (?); embryo axile, straight, subterete. Distr. Mono-generic, almost pantropical.

Description: Submerged, rootless, monoecious freshwater plants. Leaves verticillate, 2-4 times forked, segments linear dentate. Flowers actinomorphic, solitary, axillary, unisexual. Perianth valvate, segments 9-12, persistent, narrow. ♂: stamens 8-24; anthers nearly sessile rather broad, connective pointed, the 2 cells mostly crowned by a minute bristle; ovary rudiment absent. ♀: ovary superior, sessile, 1-celled with 1 ovule; style persistent, subulate, sulcate towards the apex; stamen rudiments absent. Fruit oblong, compressed, warty, not dehiscent, near the base with 2 straight or curved soft spines, or unarmed. Distr. Ca 2 spp., both ubiquitous.

Description: Annual or perennial, saprophytic or autotrophic herbs; the saprophytic species often colourless. Leaves usually spread or alternate, entire, simple, without stipules; non-saprophytic species with a radical rosette of linear leaves; stem leaves often reduced to small scales; sometimes the basal part of the stem provided with many decurrent, grass-like leaves. Flowers ♀♂, usually actinomorphic, solitary or in capitate or cymose inflorescences. Perianth corolline; limb consisting of 2 whorls; tube sometimes 3-winged. Anthers 3, subsessile in the perianth throat and dehiscing laterally with horizontal slits,or 6, hanging down in the perianth tube and dehiscing with longitudinal slits. Connective large, often appendiculate. Style filiform or shortly cylindrical or conical. Stigmas 3, sometimes connate. Ovary inferior, 1-celled with parietal placentation, or 3-celled with axile placentation. Ovules ~, anatropous, with 2 integuments; funicles often rather long. Fruit usually capsular, sometimes fleshy, crowned by the persistent perianth tube and the style, or by a thickened persistent basal ring of the perianth tube, dehiscing irregularly or with transverse slits at the top. Seeds ~, small, subglobose to linear, sometimes with loose, reticulate testa, with endosperm. Distr. About 125 species, widely distributed in the tropics of both hemispheres, also in subtropical America, Chicago area, Moçambique, Southern China, Japan, Southern Australia, New Zealand and Tasmania. As many species are rare, it is possible that only a part of their area is known. Most of them are found in moist regions. Among the autotrophic Malaysian Burmanniaceae there are 3 rather common species which are widely spread, viz Burmannia coelestis, B. disticha and B. longifolia. The latter two are absent from Java and the Lesser Sunda Islands, the former occurs in Java proper only in its western part. Of the saprophytic Malaysian species only 3 have been often collected, viz Burmannia championii, B. lutescens, and Gymnosiphon affinis.

Description: Trees, shrubs or lianas, rarely subherbaceous. Glands (in Mal. spp.) often present on the leaf-bases or petioles, and in lower marginal crenations. Indumentum of simple hairs, glandular hairs or multicellular hairs secreting calcium oxalate and forming scales, or present beneath the cuticle making the surface of the leaf minutely verruculose and sometimes pellucid-punctate. Leaves opposite, verticillate, spiral, or alternate, petioled (rarely sessile), exstipulate, simple, almost always entire. Flowers ♀♂ ♀♂ or ♀♂ and ♂ in the same inflorescences, usually protogynous, usually actinomorphic, rarely slightly zygomorphic, in axillary or extra-axillary elongated or subcapitate spikes or racemes or in terminal and sometimes axillary panicles. Receptacle (calyx-tube) usually in two distinct parts, the lower receptacle surrounding and adnate to the inferior ovary and the upper receptacle produced beyond to form a short or long tube terminating in the calyx-lobes, the latter sometimes poorly developed. Calyx-lobes 4 or 5 (rarely 6-8) or almost absent, sometimes accrescent ( Calycopteris). Petals 4 or 5 or absent, conspicuous or sometimes very small, inserted near the mouth of the upper receptacle. Stamens usually twice as many as the petals, borne inside the upper receptacle usually in two series, exserted or included; anthers dorsifixed, usually versatile (or rarely adnate to the filaments). Disk intrastaminal, usually present, hairy or glabrous. Style usually free (attached for part of its length to the upper receptacle in Quisqualis). Ovary inferior (semi-inferior in the West-African genus Strephonema), unilocular, with usually 2 (sometimes 2-6) pendulous, anatropous ovules of which only 1 usually developes. Fruit (botanically a pseudocarp) very variable in size and shape, fleshy or dry, usually indehiscent, often variously winged or ridged, 1-seeded. Albumen absent. Distr. 18 genera with c. 450 spp. in the tropics and subtropics: 2 are circumtropical ( Combretum and Terminalia), and are much the largest genera, 1 is confined to North Australia and Queensland (Macropteranthes), 2 confined to tropical Asia ( Finetia and Calycopteris) , 3 occur in Asia and Africa (Anogeissus, Lumnitzera, and Quisqualis), 1 is confined to Madagascar (Calopyxis), 3 are confined to tropical Africa (Guiera, Pteleopsis and Strephonema), 2 occur in tropical Africa and tropical America (Conocarpus and Laguncularia) and the remaining four ( Buchenavia, Bucida, Ramatuela and Thiloa) are confined to tropical and subtropical America.

Description: For various reasons the space occupied by pre-Linnean Malaysian phytography in this concise history seems too large and out of proportion in comparison to the survey of post-Linnean work. Modern plant description, though based on, and derived from, ancient beginnings and traditions, maintains but slender contacts with plant sciences earlier than the 18th century and it might claim to be allotted by far the larger space on account of its superior results, its greatly increased efficiency, its Consciousness of limitations and capabilities, its output, and its clearness of purpose. There exists, however, during the last decade, an increasing interest in the nearly forgotten botany of centuries long past, not only because of a certain taste for the quaint and attractive flavour of scientific efforts from minds so remote from our own, but also on account of a growing insight into the hidden springs of modern thought and method, which flow deeply, emerge unexpectedly, and appear to rise from distant roots. There is also, in connexion with this, the absorbing spectacle of discovery and of growth i.e. the development of a field of human culture that has bound devoted and excellent personalities in its service from the first glimmerings of our civilization.

Description: Scandent shrubs (often erect in youth), without resin; branches sympodial with a series of circinate woody hooks in one plane. Leaves spread, simple, entire, often rosette-crowded, cuneiform, penninervous, reticulate-veined, glabrous, both surfaces minutely pitted, each pit with a peltate small hair secreting a waxlike substance; petiole articulated, scar on the twigs often saddle-shaped; stipules absent. Flowers ♀♂, actinomorphic small. Inflor. few or several times dichotomous or spike-like, often provided with said hooks and single reduced bract-like leaves, branches often recurved. Pedicels articulated. Bracts with a glandular-thickened base, margin fimbriate-membranous. Calyx tube short, at length adnate to the base of the ovary; lobes 5 inequal imbricate, enlarged and wing-like in fruit. Petals 5, united at the base, slightly contorted in bud. Stamens mostly 10, rarely 5, the episepalous slightly longer. Filaments with broadened base; anthers basifixed, ± introrse to ± latrorse, 2-celled, opening lengthwise. Ovary for the greater part inferior, consisting of 3 carpels, 1-celled, protruding into a nippleshaped elongation bearing 3 articulated erect styles with a punctiform or horseshoe-shaped stigmatic apex; nipple enlarging in fruit. Ovule 1, basal, ascending, with 2 integuments. Nut not dehiscent, crowned by the enlarged calyx. Seed roundish with testa intruding between the cerebral-like folds of the endosperm. Exocarp leathery. Embryo straight, erect, obliquely placed; cotyledons diverging; hypocotyl rather thick. Distr. Disjunct, ca 3 spp. in trop. W. Africa, and 9 in SE. Asia, from the Deccan to Burma, Indochina, Hainan, S. China, the Malay Peninsula, Borneo and Sumatra (cf. fig. 2).

Description: Floating aquatic herbs with dimorphic leaves, submerged ones opposite pinnatifid rootlike, apical ones in a rosette, rhomboid, dentate, with spongy often inflated petiole, arranged in leaf-mosaic; stipules 4-8, minute. Flowers bisexual, small, solitary, axillary, short-pedicelled, 4-merous, white or lilac. Petals imbricate. Disk present. Ovary half-inferior with 1 style and 2-4 persistent sepals turning often to thorns or horns. Fruit mostly 1-celled, 1-seeded, shell bone-hard; thorns after withering often set with barbs at the apex. Seed often producing 2-5 free germ-stalks. Distr. Several species in the Old World, but not known from Australia.

Description: Priority of publication is internationally accepted as the basic principle of the ‘Rules of Botanical Nomenclature’. This has emphasized to a marked degree the importance of determining accurately the exact time when novelties are placed before the scientific public.

Description: Dioecious trees or shrubs. Leaves simple, scattered. Stipules O. Flowers unisexual, often in heads, in the axils of a bract and with 2 bracteoles. ♂: in axillary heads or short racemes; calyx entire or 5-toothed; petals 5, imbricate, often small, alternate with the calyx; stamens 8-16 in 2 alternating whorls; anthers small, dorsifixed with lateral lengthwise slits; disk pulvinate; style rudimentary. ♀: solitary, axillary or in 2-10-flowered heads; ovary inferior, 1-locular, connate with the 5-toothed or entire calyx; petals 5-8 often minute; stamens of inner whorl partly sterile, both petals and anthers soon dropping; style with 2 appressed later divergent often torulose branches stigmatose on their inside, brittle, often deficient in the herbarium. Ovule 1, hanging from the apex of the cell, anatropous with 2 integuments. Fruit drupaceous ovoid to oblong. Distr. Ca 6 spp., 4 in Atlantic N. America, 1 in China, 1 from India to W. Malaysia.

Description: Trees, rarely shrubs. Leaves simple, mostly glandular-punctate, exstipulate. Flowers ♀, actinomorphic, 5-merous. Calyx-tube short, tube (and usually segments) densely setulose-hairy within. Corolla represented by 7-40 deltoid to linear-subulate processes, rarely by a low entire annulus. Stamens 8-80; filaments free, short, slender; anthers hippocrepiform. Disk 0. Ovary (2-)3-5(-8)-locular; cells with one anatropous ovule pendulous from the apex. Style elongate, filiform, sometimes accompanied by ‘parastyles’ at the base; stigma small, capitate. Fruit a thick-walled, woody, dehiscent, 1—5-seeded capsule, or a thin-walled, (?) indehiscent, 1—2-seeded capsule. Seeds large, without chalazal fold, usually with aril. Endosperm 0. Distr. Almost confined to Malaysia, occurring in all parts of the archipelago except E. Java and the Lesser Sunda Isl.; found also in the Nicobar, Solomon and Fiji Islands. Genera 3. The greatest number of species is concentrated in Borneo, with apparently a marked inner centre of differentiation in the western part of the island. Fig. 1.

Description: The present notes deal with a small collection of frogs that was made by Dr. P. WAGENAAR HUMMELINCK during his visits to the islands of the Leeward Group, Venezuela and Eastern Colombia. I have included in this study the specimens of Pleurodema brachyops (Cope) already present in the Rijksmuseum van Natuurlijke Historie, Leiden, and in the Zoologisch Museum, Amsterdam. The amphibian fauna of the Dutch Leeward Islands is very poor indeed. It consists of a single species Pleurodema brachyops (Cope)) that occurs in Aruba, Curaçao, Bonaire and Klein Bonaire. Bufo marinus (L.) has apparently been introduced into Aruba within the last few years (cf. p. 91). J. H. R. NEERVOORT VAN DE POLL, who visited Aruba in 1885, took a specimen of a Leptodactylus species. This has been mentioned by VAN LIDTH DE JEUDE (1887, p. 134) as ? Rana copii Blgr.” On the authority of Dr. G. A. BOULENGER the identification was changed into Leptodactylus albilabris (Gthr.), and as such it has been mentioned recently by BOSCHMA (1947, p. 42).

Description: Two species of leeches only have been collected by dr HUMMELINCK in 1936—1937, but these are important as they evidently prove the occurrence in warm tropical waters of species hitherto only recorded from non-tropical areas. Helobdella scutifera is distinguished from H. stagnalis by AUTRUM, 1936, p. 26 and 34, though PAWLOWSKY (cf. AUTRUM 1939, Bronns Kl. u. Ordn., Hirudineae 2, p. 500) considered them synonymous. AUTRUM (l. c. p. 500 and footnote) remarks that H. stagnalis is not known from tropical localities, supposing the habitats in Ecuador, Brasil and Paraguay perhaps to be non-tropical because of their particular position. Our material, however, shows affinities to both species and tends to affirm the identity of H. stagnalis and H. scutifera. It is important to know that our habitat was really tropical, the temperature measured being 28°—31° C.

Description: Tuyama, T.: On Rumphius’s ”Arbor ovigera and the related species, with reference to Hernandia sonora (Bull. of the Sigenkagaku Kenkyussyo, vol. 1, no. 1 (1943) 27-44, 4 fig. 2 pl.). The original is in Japanese, but there is a detailed extract in English and Latin. Description of a new species H. labyrinthica from Rota Isl., Mariannes; the original Rumphian plant typifies H. ovigera; a new name H. javanica is proposed for the Javanese plant described by Meisner. Nakai, T.: Nova Flora Japonica. Ardisiaceae. Tokyo & Osaka, 1943. 170 pp. 42 fig. The book is written in Japanese, except for the literature citations; new entities are described in Latin. Nomenclature deviates widely from the usual one.

Description: There are only a few things left in common to the displaced and disjointed inhabitants of this Earth; they are the things spiritual. Among those treasures of the mind natural science has come to the fore only in the last three centuries, as a lofty and impartial principle that tends to join people instead of disrupting them. Through war, famine and pestilence the undying fire of science has remained a steady beacon.

Description: Prostrate hairy herbs. Leaves opposite, paripinnate, mostly anisophyllous; stipules present. Flowers actinomorphic, 5-merous, bisexual, solitary on pseudo-axillary peduncles, white or yellow. Sepals 5, free, imbricate, persistent or caducous. Petals 5, free, patent, imbricate, fugacious. Disk present. Stamens 10, subequal or unequal; anthers dorsifixed. Ovary superior, sessile, hairy, 5—12-lobed, 5—12-celled; style short and thick, with 5—12 decurrent stigmas; cells with 3 or more ovules. Fruit 5-angled or 5—12-winged; cocci partly abortive, spinous or tuberculate, indehiscent with 3-5 superposed seeds separated by septa. Distr. & Ecol. Ca 20 spp. difficult to delimit, specially developed in the dry regions of Africa and Australia. In S. Africa the spinous fruits adhere to the wool and feet of sheep (‘hoof-burs’) and are a nuisance. The family has about 26 genera, of which 12 monotypic, and ca 250 spp., mostly of warm dry countries. In Malaysia one genus and one species.

Description: Glabrous trees, shrubs or, for the greater part, vines. Leaves decussate, simple, entire, penninerved, exstipulate, mostly provided with fine, pellucid lines (spicular cells) parallel to the secondary nerves and then bearded on fracture. Spikes ramified or simple, axillary or often cauline, dioecious, each one with 2 opposite basal scales and several collars containing moniliform hairs and sessile flowers, either numerous spirally arranged male ones below a ring of some sterile female ones, or a ring of few fertile female ones. ♂ Flower: a claw-shaped, transversely splitting perianth and a central stamen with 2 (in G. gnemonoides one) apical, yellow microsporangia that open by an apical median split. ♀ Flower: a fleshy outer envelop (‘perianth’) and 2 thin inner ones (‘integuments’), the innermost with a long, slender, apical tube, and an orthotropous ovule; sterile ♀ flower without the middle envelop. Fruit pink (in G. neglectum and G. oxycarpum yellow), consisting of the fleshy outer envelop, which in some spp. is narrowed into a stalk, the hardened, ribbed middle envelop, the thin, silky, inner envelop, and a large, horny seed with small embryo. Distr. About 30 species, of which 7 in northern S. America, 2 in western tropical Africa, the remainder in tropical Asia from Bombay to Fu-Kien, through Malaysia to Fiji, neither in Formosa nor in Australia or New Caledonia. Centre of present development: eastern Malaysia. The distributional areas of several species present some marked lines within the archipelago.

Description: Rhizomatose, aromatic or pungent, perennial, often stoloniferous herbs. Stem articulated. Leaves simple, entire, scattered (not alternate), often oblique; leaf base mostly reniform-cordate, nervation mostly palmate. Petiole sheathing or an intrapetiolar stipule. Flowers bisexual, actinomorphic, small, in terminal spikes or racemes or opposite the leaves (sympodial), each in the axil of a bract, bract sometimes connate with the pedicel; lowest bracts sometimes petaloid. Perianth absent. Stamens 3, 4, 6 or 8, sometimes partly abortive, free or adnate to the basal part of the ovary or epigynous. Anthers 2-celled, splitting lengthwise laterally or extrorse. Ovary composed of 3-4 connate carpels, or 1-celled with 4-3 parietal placentas. Styles free or connate at the base, often recurved, stigmatose on the inner surface. Fruit capsular opening at the top, or consisting of tubercled indehiscent 1-seeded cocci. Distr. 4 genera, 2 in E. Asia, 1 in California, and 1 both in Asia and Atlantic N. America; the latter with 2 species, the others monotypic.

Description: Herbs or undershrubs, usually succulent, perennial, less often annual or biennial. Leaves spirally arranged, opposite or whorled, exstipulate, simple or compound, entire, dentate, crenate, serrate or deeply incised. Flowers ♀, rarely unisexual, actinomorphic, usually cymose or cymose-paniculate, rarely spicate or solitary in leaf-axils, pedicelled or sessile, mostly 4—5-, rarely 3- or polymerous. Sepals free or nearly so, or united into a distinct tube, after anthesis marcescent and persistent as are the petals. Petals the same number as sepals, rarely more, hypogynous, free or variously connate. Stamens either as many as petals and alternate with them or twice their number, perigynous or all or partly inserted on the corolla; filaments free from each other; anthers 2-celled; cells introrse, dehiscing longitudinally. Hypogynous scales as many as carpels, placed singly at the back of them, free or at the base adnate to the base of the carpels. Carpels superior, the same number as petals, epipetalous, free or connate at the base, 1-celled. Ovules inserted on the adaxial side, mostly many, biseriate, rarely solitary or few. Styles as many as carpels, free, linear or subulate, short to long. Fruit follicular, membranous or leathery, opening on the adaxial side. Seeds minute, endosperm usually fleshy; embryo straight. Distr. About 20 genera and upwards of 700 spp., in the frigid, temperate and warm regions of Europe, Asia, Africa, northern and tropical America, rare in S. America and Australia, absent from Polynesia.

Description: inst. 1 (pp. 1-42): March 15 – May 31, 1825 (May 23rd-May 31st). inst. 2-9 (pp. 48-48), incl. ”Tabellen”): June 1 – Dec. 7, 1825 (1-6th Dec.). inst. 10-12 (pp. 487-636): Dec. 7th, 1825 – March 15th 1826 (? Jan. – Febr. 1826). inst. 13 (pp. 638-730): Dec. 7th, 1825 – March 15th 1826 (prob. Febr. 1826). inst. 14-15 (pp. 731-942): July – Dec. 1826. inst. 16-17 (pp. 944-1169): Oct. 1826 – March 1827. June 1948. H.C.D. de Wit.

Description: Annual or perennial herbs or undershrubs, sometimes fleshy. Leaves simple, entire or subentire, opposite, spread, or spuriously whorled, sometimes minute, stipulate or not. Stipules often small, scarious, fugacious. Flowers axillary, solitary, clustered or fascicled, cymose, pseudoracemose, or subumbellate, actinomorphic, usually ♀, often small and inconspicuous. Tepals 5, either free, imbricate in bud, herbaceous with scarious often white margins or entirely scarious, persistent, conniving before and after anthesis, or a distinctly gamophyllous, corolline or calycine 3—8-lobed perianth with usually persistent, herbaceous lobes imbricate or rarely valvate in bud. Stamens 1-~, perigynous or hypogynous, free or connate at the base, either singly or in groups, often alternate with the perianth lobes. Anthers 2-celled, dehiscing lengthwise. Disk annular or absent. Ovary superior, semi-inferior or inferior, 1—9-celled. Ovules 2-~, solitary or ~, basal, apical or axile. Styles 1-~. Capsule or drupe, 2—~-seeded, often enclosed by the perianth and falling off with it. Distr. About 23 genera (if Mesembryanthemum is split into segregates many more) and over a thousand spp.(over 800 belonging to Mesembryanthemum), distinctly centering in the S. hemispherical subtropics of the Old World, mainly in S. Africa, with a secondary centre of development in Australia, in Malaysia and other essentially forested tropics poorly represented by some widely distributed, partly peritropical genera and widely distributed weeds.

Description: Trees or erect shrubs, often dotted with yellow glands and strongly aromatic. Leaves spirally arranged, exstipulate, or stipulate in young plants only, shortly petioled, simple, entire, serrate-dentate or more or less deeply pinnatisect, penninerved. Flowers in axillary, solitary or spiked or racemed catkins, (♂) (♀) or (♂♀); when the inflorescence is (♂♀), then the ♂ flowers below the ♀; each flower subtended by a bract. Sepals and petals absent, or the ♀ with 2 or more minute sepaloid bracteoles. ♂: Stamens 2-20, usually 2-4; filaments free or more or less connate into a column; anthers erect, 2-celled; cells opening by longitudinal slits. Rudimentary ovary, as a rule, absent. ♀: no staminodes. Ovary sessile, 1-celled. Style deeply bifid; branches short or longish, stigmatose on the inner side. Ovule 1, basal, erect, orthotropous. Drupe ovoid, ellipsoid or globose, tuberculate; endocarp hard. Seed erect, not comose; testa membranous; endosperm none; embryo straight; cotyledons plano-convex; radicle short. Distr. Species according to CHEVALIER ca 50, but this number may be greatly reduced. By some authors the genus has been split into 3 genera, but I am inclined to accept only one.

Description: Small terrestrial or aquatic, insectivorous herbs. Primary root often undeveloped, stembase with adventitious roots, sometimes tuberous. Leaves spirally arranged, often in basal rosettes, rarely whorled, provided with sessile or stipitate sticky glands, marginal glands longest, often circinate when young. Stipules mostly present. Inflorescence lateral or terminal, cymose, often circinate. Bracts absent or present. Bracteoles 0; pedicels not articulated. Flowers ♀♂, actinomorphic, (in Malaysia) 5-merous. Sepals imbricate, persistent, at the base + connate. Petals imbricate, free, thin, veined, marcescent, long persistent. Stamens (in Malaysia) 5, free, alternating with the petals; filaments filiform; anthers extrors; pollen in tetrads. Disk 0. Ovary superior, free; 1-celled; carpels 3-5 with parietal placentas. Styles 3-5, mostly free, simple or divided. Ovules mostly ~. Capsule mostly loculicid, 3—5-valved. Seeds small, mostly ~, albuminous; embryo straight; cotyledons short. Distr. Of the 4 genera three are monotypic: Drosophyllum is endemic in the West Mediterranean, Dionaea is endemic in Atlantic N. America, and Aldrovanda is found from Europe through Asia to Australia. Drosera is predominantly developed in the S. hemisphere, specially in Australia and though distributed almost over the globe, it is absent from many regions.

Description: Trees or shrubs, at least two spp. laticiferous. Leaves simple, entire, subopposite or opposite, rarely subverticillate; often with some alternate ones between, penninerved; petiole sometimes with auricles at the top; blade often with glandular pits in the axils of the secondary nerves or scattered on the undersurface; tertiary nerves slender but conspicuous, transverse and usually crowded, more or less perpendicular to the midrib. Stipules small, caducous. Flowers bisexual, in small fascicles or solitary, placed along racemose or more or less broadly paniculate axillary shoots; bracts minute deltoid. Sepals 5, quincuncially imbricate, two inner ones with scarious margins. Corolla infundibuliform, tube short, slightly thickened; lobes spreading, imbricate in bud. Staminodes 5, alternipetalous, inserted in the throat. Stamens 5, epipetalous; filaments short, connate with the base of the petals; anthers basifix, slightly extrorse, 2-celled, longitudinally dehiscent. Ovary superior, 1—2-celled, glabrous, contracted into a short stout style; cells with 1 apotropous, ascending ovule, attached to the basis of the central axis; stigma truncate, capitate or faintly 2-lobed. Fruit drupaceous, 1—(2)-seeded, ovoid to oblong; pericarp thin. Seeds with a thin-crustaceous pale dull testa. Hilum small, round, basal; albumen absent; cotyledons thick; radicle inferior. Distr. 6 spp. of this mono-generic family occur in SE. Asia and Malaysia.

Description: The question whether tidal and non-tidal members of a family have a separate wood anatomical structure would be examined best in such genera as embrace both types. The sequel to this examination, whether any such differences are connected with peculiarities in the water relations of the plants, should be examined in the same way. There are, however, few genera that comprise both littoral and inland species. In some of these genera, Excoecaria, Ixora and Dolichandrone, wood anatomical data can be compared but water relations among the species have not been examined nor are comparative data from the nearest relatives available. According to MOLL & JANSSONIUS the mangrove-swamp species possess more vessels per mm² with a larger total area on cross section and the pores are mostly distinctly smaller than in the nearest related inland species. However, data on area JANSSONIUS did not record.

Description: In writing the following chapters I have kept in mind the exemplary ‘Introductory Essay’ of J. D. HOOKER in his ‘Flora Indica’ (1855), the precursor of the ‘Flora of British India’. For the same reasons that moved HOOKER, I felt obliged to introduce the Flora Malesiana proper by some general considerations especially intended for co-operators less fortunate than I have been in acquiring an experience of long standing in the field. I may add that field experience often is invaluable when studying dried, always fragmentary, materials in the Herbarium.

Description: Trees or shrubs, buds with many perules. Leaves decussate, petiolate, entire, palmate or pinnate, appearing simultaneously with the flowers or later, exstipulate. Inflorescence racemose, corymbose or spicate, terminal with 2-4 leaves, or rarely terminal or axillary without leaves. Monoecious or dioecious, flowers actinomorphic, ♂ and ♀, ovary in the ♂ fls more reduced than stamens in ♀ fls. Calyx and corolla 4-5-merous. Stamens 4-10, mostly 8, hypogynous or perigynous. Disc extraor intrastaminal. Ovary superior, 2-celled, laterally flattened, each cell with 2 ovules. Fruit a samara, splitting into 2, rarely 3, winged usually 1-seeded parts. Seed without endosperm, radicle elongate, cotyledons foliaceous, or thickened, plicate, involute or flat. Distr. Ca 200 spp. in the N. hemisphere, only in Malaysia crossing the equator.

Description: Herbs, shrubs or (not in Malaysia) trees. Leaves alternate, simple, entire; stipules minute or absent. Flowers in terminal, axillary or lateral racemes, bracteate and bibracteolate, ♀ or unisexual, actinomorphic or zygomorphic, mostly (so in the Malaysian species) monochlamydeous. Tepals 4-5, herbaceous or membranaceous, free, imbricate in bud, coloured during and often also after anthesis, equal or unequal, persistent. Stamens 3 to many, usually inserted on a hypogynous disk, either regularly or irregularly arranged, 1—2-seriate; those of the only or outer series more or less alternating with the tepals; filaments slender, free, persistent; anthers dorsi- or basifixed, dehiscing longitudinally. Ovary superior, composed of 1 or more carpels; these either free or laterally connate. Styles as many as carpels, short, or none, free. Ovules solitary in each carpel, basal. Fruit of 1 or more carpels, juicy or dry. Seed erect; embryo large, peripheric, enclosing the endosperm. Distr. Genera upwards of 20, mostly inhabitants of the tropics of both hemispheres, mainly of America. In Malaysia 3 herbaceous or subshrubby genera, all introduced from tropical America.

Description: Erect or ascending herbs, annual or perennial, sometimes woody at the base. Leaves alternate, stipulate or not, simple, petioled, serrate or serrate-dentate, biglandular at the base or not, herbaceous. Flowers in the Malaysian species solitary in the leafaxils or in terminal racemes, actinomorphic, ♀, homostylous or heterodistylous, ephemerous. Calyx gamophyllous, 5-fid, after anthesis circumsciss at the base; segments imbricate in bud. Petals 5, inserted in the throat of the calyx-tube, contorted in bud, free, shortly clawed or subsessile, deciduous after anthesis. Stamens 5, inserted on calyx-tube, alternating with the petals; filaments filiform-subulate, free; anthers introrse, 2-celled; cells opening longitudinally. Ovary superior, sessile, 1-celled; placentas 3, parietal; ovules 3 to numerous. Styles 3, terminal, free, slender; stigmas penicilliform. Capsule globose or ovoid, loculicidally 3-valved. Seeds numerous, incompletely arillate, with a raised scalariform reticulation; endosperm copious, horny or fleshy; embryo large, straight. Distr. Tropical America and Africa, represented there by 7 genera and about 80 to 100 species; 2 genera (3 species) naturalized in Malaysia.

Description: Erect herbs with a short rhizome. Leaves linear radical or crowded at the stem base, distich, equitant, parallel-nerved. Flowers zygomorphic, bisexual, solitary in the axil of spathaceous bracts. Perianth corolline, segments 4, 2-seriate. Stamen 1, inserted at the base of the abaxial segments. Filament flattened; anther 2-celled; cells straight or twisted, opening lengthwise by slits. Ovary superior, 3-celled with axile placentas, or 1-celled with parietal placentas. Style simple. Ovules ~, anatropous. Capsule with 3 valves. Seeds ~. Distr. Centering in Australia, comprises 4 genera with 5 species.

Description: Annual or perennial herbs or shrubs, sometimes climbing by means of foliar tendrils, rarely small trees. Leaves spirally arranged or opposite, exstipulate, sessile or petioled, entire or more or less deeply divided, or compound. Flowers axillary or terminal, solitary, geminate, corymbose or capitate, actinomorphic or slightly zygomorphic. Calyx 5-lobed or 5-partite, with or without transparent fields, persistent. Corolla gamophyllous, 5-lobed or 5-partite; lobes contorted in bud. Stamens 5, on the corolla-tube, inserted at equal or unequal height, alternating with the segments; filaments free from each other, included or exserted; anthers dorsifixed, 2-celled; cells opening longitudinally. Ovary superior, sessile on a disk, 3 (rarely 2)-celled; ovules in each cell 1-~, inserted in the inner angle; style 1, filiform, 3 (rarely 2)-fid. Fruit a loculicidal or septifragal capsule, rarely indehiscent. Endosperm mostly copious; embryo straight or slightly curved. Distr. N. America and the Andes, rare in the Old World, absent from Africa and Australia. Genera 12, represented by upwards of 250 species. In Malaysia one American genus is more or less naturalized; a few other species are cultivated in gardens.

Description: Trees. Leaves opposite, biseriate, exstipulate, simple, entire, coriaceous. Flowers ♀, either 1-3 together at the summits of the branchlets or in terminal corymbs, pedicelled, rather large, actinomorphic. Calyx thickly coriaceous, persistent, gamosepalous; segments 4-8, valvate in bud, acute, often coloured inside; tube of fruiting calyx flat or not. Petals either absent or as many as calyx-segments; in the latter case either broad and wrinkled or very narrow and smooth, alternating with the sepals. Stamens mostly many, sometimes 12, inserted on the calyx, often manyseriate, inflexed in bud; filaments filiform-subulate; anthers medifixed, reniform or oblong, 2-celled; cells opening lengthwise. Ovary superior, sessile with a broad base, during anthesis enclosed by the calyx-base, 4—~-celled; septa thin; ovules numerous on thick, axile placentas. Style 1, long, robust; stigma 1, capitate, entire or slightly lobed. Fruit resting on the calyx-tube, either an indehiscent berry or a valvate capsule, many-seeded. Seeds small, exalbuminous. Distr. Two small genera, one extending from tropical East Africa and adjacent islands to Queensland, Micronesia and Melanesia, the other confined to SE. Asia and Malaysia.

Description: Herbs, rarely climbing or clambering shrubs. Leaves opposite or alternate, exstipulate, simple, entire or obsoletely dentate-serrate. Flowers ♀, unisexual, or partly difformed and neutral, in clusters, heads, racemes, spikes or panicles, solitary or clustered in the axil of persistent bracts, usually bibracteolate. Tepals 3-5, mostly free; bracts, bracteoles and tepals with scarious margins or entirely scarious; bracteoles falling off with the perianth or persistent; perianth usually enclosing the fruit and falling off with it, rarely persistent. Stamens as many as petals and opposed to them, rarely fewer; filaments free, or connate below, or almost entirely united in a cup or tube, with or without interposed dentiform, subulate, linear or short and broad pseudo-staminodes; anthers dorsifixed or inserted in a basal cleft, 1—2-celled (2- or 4-locellate). Ovary superior, 1-celled; ovules 1 or more, basal; funicles short or long. Fruit sometimes baccate or crustaceous, usually membranous, very rarily corky, circumscissile, indehiscent or bursting irregularly. Seeds 1-~, often lenticular or subreniform, smooth or verruculose. Distr. Worldwide, more than 60 genera and ca 850 spp., few in the tropical forests, most developed in America and Africa, in Australia a big centre of Ptilotus. In Malaysia: mostly represented by widely distributed anthropochorous spp., none endemic, several naturalized.

Description: Tree, wood vessels mostly solitary. Leaves simple, spread (on lateral branches), penninervous, entire, margin and leaf tip glandular; upper epidermis often double and provided with mucilaginous cells; midrib sulcate above. Stipules caducous. Indumentum of simple hairs. Flowers actinomorphic, bisexual, in axillary and terminal panicles; bracts with glandular margin. Sepals 5, free, nerved as the petals are, unequal, imbricate. Petals 5, free, very unequal, imbricate; posterior saccate with reflexed emarginate limb, lateral spathulate, spreading, anterior oblique, keel-like together, including at their base the genitals; entrance of the sac with one fleshy hairy concave gland (easily breaking into 2 parts). Stamens 6 monadelphous, tube split posteriorly, eventually with some loose minute teeth, minute upper part of filaments free; anthers oval, slightly emarginate at the base, 2-celled, opening with one slit, gaping; exine (judging from boiled fls) reticulate. Ovary hairy, easily falling into 3 parts as does the simple style; stigma small punctiform. Ovule pendulous solitary. Fruit composed of 3 easily detaching samaras. Seeds (n.v.) elongate, shortly hairy, exalbuminous; radicle very short. Distr. Monotypic, confined to W. Malaysia, wrongly credited to New Guinea by LEMÉE, l.c.

Description: This publication is intended to be the first part of a taxonomic monograph of the family Vochysiaceae and deals with the genera Salvertia and Vochysia. Since Warming’s excellent treatise of the Brazilian species of this family in the Flora Brasiliensis (Vol. XIII, II,1875) a large number of new species has been described, especially from neighbouring countries, and much new material has been collected. The fact that the number of species of Vochysia has been doubled since Warming may give a raison d’être to this monograph. A large quantity of material was kindly put at my disposal by several herbaria. These herbaria are indicated in this monograph by the following abbreviations proposed by the Standing Committee for Urgent Taxonomic needs of the International Botanic Congresses for the planned Index Herbariorum.

Description: Accessibility of the Buitenzorg Herbarium. – In Blumea 6, p. 307 (1948), bottom of the page, it is mentioned that the Buitenzorg Herbarium is ”as yet inaccessible”. The author wrote this article apparently under war-time conditions and neglected to omit this statement which is now obsolete. In order to avoid confusion it may be announced that the Buitenzorg Herbarium is, since January 1947 in full running condition: Head is Dr D.F. van Slooten, botanists present are Dr M.A. Donk, Dr S. Blaembergen, A.G.L. Adelbert, and Dr J. Zaneveld. Of the Bulletin parts 3 and 4 of volume 17 have appeared resp. in Dec. 1947 and May 1948; the first number of vol. 18 is in the press. Duplicates and loans are dispatched, and exchange of collections is resumed. Flora of South Australia. – Mr J.M. Black wrote the first edition of his Flora in 4 parts issued 1922-1929. A second edition of the first part was edited in 1943, the type of part 2 has now been completely set up, and Mr Black is engaged in the revision of part 3. A remarkable achievement at his age: he celebrated his 92nd birthday on April 28th, 1947.

Description: It is a pleasure to announce the appearance of ”The Gardens’ Bulletin, Singapore” in continuance of the widely appreciated ”The Gardens’ Bulletin, Straits Settlements”. The latter periodical was discontinued after volume XI, part 3, published Aug. 30, 1941 had appeared. Vol. XI, part 4, issued Sept. 30th, 1947 contains a concise history of the Singapore Botanic Gardens during the period 1941-1946. We are obliged for permission to reprint that important communication in this Bulletin. The Gardens regret the loss of Mr J.C. Nauen, an officer of outstanding ability in charge of the Waterfall Gardens, Penang. He was taken prisoner by the Japanese and died on the Siam-Burma railroad, Oct. 1943. Messrs Holttum and Henderson prepared some important contributions on Filicales, Orchidaceae, Cyperaceae, Gramineae, and on Eugenia respectively.

Description: From various sources the editor of this Bulletin has received ample information on the proceedings of botanical research and publication relating to the Malaysian flora. He will be grateful for any notes and references on work in progress. He specially asks co-operation in the completion of the ”Iconotheca” of Malaysian plant collectors and phytographers, of which he invites directors and librarians to take part. It is astonishing that he did not succeed in acquiring any picture of some very Important botanists and collectors, such as Th. Horsfield. William Jack, H. Kunstler, C. Boden Kloss. A.D.E. Elmer, H.O. Forbes, Ch. Gaadichaud, J.D. Haviland, James Motley, L.Th. Leschenault, E.W. Hullett, etc. etc. (cf. page 46). Through the care of Dr. Fr. Verdoorn a limited number of binders were made and distributed to libraries and co-operators to keep the several numbers of this Bulletin, until they are ready to be bound. The editor expects they will be found useful.

Description: Annual or perennial herbs, never woody shrubs (in Malaysia). Stems often furrowed and with soft pith. Leaves alternate along the stems, often also in rosettes; petiole usually with a sheath, sometimes with stipules at the base; lamina usually much divided, sometimes entire. Flowers polygamous, in simple or compound umbels, sometimes in heads, terminal or leaf-opposed, beneath with or without involucres and involucels. Calyx teeth 5, often obsolete. Petals 5, alternate with the calyx teeth, equal or outer ones of the inflorescence enlarged, entire or more or less divided, often with inflexed tips, inserted below the epigynous disk. Stamens alternate with the petals, similarly inserted. Disk 2-lobed, free from the styles or confluent with their thickened base, forming a stylopodium. Ovary inferior; styles 2. Fruits with 2 one-seeded mericarps, connected by a narrow or broad junction (commissure) in fruit separating, leaving sometimes a persistent axis ( carpophore) either entire or splitting into 2 halves; mericarps with 5 longitudinal ribs, 1 dorsal rib at the back of the mericarp, 2 lateral ribs at the commissure; 2 intermediate ribs between the dorsal and the lateral ones; sometimes with secondary ribs between the primary ones, these without fascicular bundles; often vittae in the ridges between the ribs or under the secondary ribs, and in the commissure, seldom under the primary ribs. Distr. Numerous genera and species, all over the world. The representatives native in Malaysia belong geographically to five types. (1) Ubiquitous genera ( Hydrocotyle, Centella, Oenanthe); one species, Hydrocotyle vulgaris, shows a remarkable disjunction, occurring in Europe & N. Africa and also in New Guinea, Australia and the Marshall Islands. (2) Western elements are Sanicula (wide-spread in the N. hemisphere but absent from New Guinea and Australia), Heracleum and Pimpinella; though some spp. are endemic their close relatives are found in SE. Asia. (3) A distinctly N. element is the Japano-Formosan Peucedanum japonicum in the islands N. of Luzon. (4) A distinct Australian element is Trachymene which centers in Australia and occurs also in New Caledonia and Fiji; this genus shows a relatively rich secondary centre in East Malaysia; another Australian alliance is found in ubiquitous Eryngium of which the only native Malaysian species hitherto known is allied to Australian spp. (5) A distinct Subantarcticdistributed genus is Oreomyrrhis which centers in New Guinea by 4 spp.; one of these occurs from Kinabalu to Australia, New Zealand to Andine South America as far as Mexico; a marked instance of the ancient alpine-Papuan South Pacific plant refuge (v. ST.).

Description: Shrubs, trees, or prostrate plants. Leaves spread, rarely opposite, entire or toothed, exstipulate. Flowers ♀, zygomorphic, rarely almost actinomorphic, small, axillary, solitary or usually in clusters of 2,3 or more. Calyx and corolla 5-lobed. Stamens 4, rarely 5, in pairs of unequal length, inserted on the corolla-tube and alternate with the lobes. Anther-cells opening lengthwise, confluent at the apex, usually forming a single reniform cell after dehiscence. Ovary superior, not lobed, 2—10-celled with 1 ovule in each cell, rarely 2-celled with 2 ovules per cell. Style simple entire or obscurely notched at the apex. Drupe 2—10-celled. Distr. Ca 35 spp., largely in Australia, 1 species in E. Asia, further in the Pacific, Rodriguez Isl. and Mauritius.

Description: After the appearance of RUMPHIUS’S Herbarium Amboinense, the result of lifelong research into the botanical treasures of the Malaysian Archipelago, the first comprehensive work on the flora of these islands was begun by C. L. BLUME, the second Director of the Botanic Gardens at Buitenzorg. His Bijdragen lot de Flora van Nederlandsch Indie (Contributions to the Flora of the Netherlands Indies) consisted of numerous brief botanical diagnoses mostly, however, of Javan species. Shortly after followed his Flora Javae and later Rumphia. None of these books represent a ‘flora’; neither completeness was aimed at nor keys were given. The first design for a flora of the whole of Malaysia seems to have been drafted by the Swiss botanists H. ZOLLINGER and his teacher, A. MORITZI.¹ I have not succeeded in tracing any further results of their plans.

Description: Perennial ± succulent herbs, often somewhat woody and procumbent and rooting at the base, often clothed with branched multicellular hairs; habit sometimes recalling certain Gesneriaceae (Cyrtandra, etc.). Leaves alternate, simple, mostly ± asymmetrical, sinuate-denticulate or subentire, ± fleshy, petiolate, exstipulate. Inflorescences axillary, cymose, often scorpioid, acropetal, solitary or 2-3 together in each axil. Bracts usually rather large and membranous. Flowers hermaphrodite (rarely unisexual), actinomorphic (calyx excepted), shortly pedicelled or sessile. Calyx-tube campanulate or linear-cylindric, adnate to the ovary by means of 5 longitudinal septa formed by the continuation of the filaments, leaving 5 deep nectariferous pits below the petals; lobes 5, imbricate, mostly membranous, persistent, unequal (2 larger and 3 smaller), coloured (mostly whitish). Corolla inserted at the apex of the calyx-tube, variously gamopetalous or less frequently choripetalous, ± campanulate, mostly fleshy or cartilagineous, occasionally delicate in texture, persistent, segments or petals 5 (rarely 4), valvate (sometimes induplicate), often reflexed at the apex. Stamens 5, alternipetalous, shortly adnate to the corolla (when gamopetalous); filaments persistent; anthers ovate, oblong or linear, introrse, basifixed, dehiscing by slits. Ovary inferior, 2-locular; placentas axile, bifid, multi-ovulate; style short, thick, simple; stigma massive, oblongcylindric, often strongly 5-ribbed. Ovules very minute, very numerous, pendulous, anatropous, with 1 integument. Fruit baccate, indehiscent. Seeds minute, ovoid; testa reticulate, brown; embryo minute; albumen copious. Distr. One genus. From Lower Burma, Indo-China and Kwangtung, throughout Malaysia to Central New Guinea-Java and the Lesser Sunda Islands excepted. Fig. 1.

Description: The family consists of 5 genera, if Donatia FORST., of which the systematic position is not at all certain, is included. Four genera are confined to Australia, Tasmania, New Zealand and the Magellan region of South America. Stylidium is almost entirely Australian, but a few spp. occur in Malaysia, Ceylon, and continental SE. Asia.

Description: Mostly annual, rather small, of peculiar habit, often moss-like, gregarious, confined to swift running water in streams and cascades. Tissues with silicium. Roots often thallose, flat, stem sometimes absent. Leaves mostly alternate, sometimes scattered, decussate or distichous, base often provided with a sheath, and sometimes stipulelike appendages, often dentate or divided. Flowers terminal, often in cymose inflor., mostly ♀♂, actinomorphic to zygomorphic. Perianth of 3-5 free or subconnate tepals, if reduced to two small, ovate or linear appendages, the bud is enveloped by an originally closed thin ‘spathella’. Stamens hypogyn, 1-~, often 2 unilateral, frequently monadelphic. Anthers mostly introrse, 2—4-locular, splitting lengthwise. Pollen grains single, or in twos or fours. Ovary superior, ovate to elliptic, mostly 2-, rarely 3-locular with thickened central placenta and thin septa. Ovules ~; styles as many as carpels, free, rarely 1. Capsule septicid (often) ribbed; seeds ~, minute, exalbuminous, epidermis mucilaginous. Distr. Principally confined to the tropics throughout the world, not yet recorded from the Pacific islands and the greater part of Australia, northward as far as S. Japan, in Malaysia apparently very rare. The locality closest to Malaysia is isthmian Siam where Dr A. KEITH found Podostemon ?algaeformis BTH. in the nineties.

Description: Glabrous, annual or perennial herbs. Leaves distichous, radical, entire, linear, with a sheath. Inflorescence terminal, spicate or racemose. Flowers bisexual, actinomorphic, small, inconspicuous, mostly green. Perianth segments 6, conchiform. Stamens 6 (or partly reduced), epi-tepalous. Anthers sessile, extrorse, cells 2. Carpels 6, or less by abortion, free or united, or partly free; ovule 1 per cell, basal, erect; style mostly absent. Pericarp dry. Seed exalbuminous, embryo straight. Distr. Cosmopolitan, the majority of the ca 15 spp. known from the S. hemisphere. The Malaysian species is the only one of subg. Cycnogeton (ENDL.) BUCH., distinct by entirely free carpels.

Description: Erect, ascending, climbing or floating perennials, often robust, stoloniferous or not. Leaves spirally arranged or bifarious, subsessile or distinctly stalked, ovatelanceolate or oblong-lanceolate-linear, with or without a spirally coiled, tendril-like apex; their sheaths embracing the stem, either closed all round or more or less deeply split on the anterior side. Blade closely longitudinally nerved or subpenninerved; nerves connected by numerous short, often oblique transverse veinlets. Flowers arranged in terminal, sessile or peduncled panicles, sessile, actinomorphic, ♀ or unisexual, rather small. Perianth hypogynous, calycine or corolline. Tepals 6, 2-seriately imbricate, free or shortly connate, persistent. Stamens in ♀ and ♂ 6, free; anthers basifixed, 2-celled; cells bursting by an introrse longitudinal slit. Ovary in ♀ and ♀ superior, sessile, 3-celled; cells with a solitary ovule in the inner angle; stigmas 3 or one deeply 3-lobed stigma, sessile. Fruit drupaceous, indehiscent. Seeds or kernels 1-3; albumen copious; embryo small. Distr. Genera 3, in the tropics of the Old World, all of them in Malaysia.

Description: Trailing shrubs or lianas without special organs for climbing, branches rarely flexuose; stem with wide vessels, raphides in the flowering parts; bark often with short linear lengthwise lenticels. Growth in flushes from terminal and axillary buds. Indumentum of stellate or simple hairs. Stipules minute, obsolete, or absent. Leaves simple, scattered, petiolate, serrate or callous-dentate, penninervous, midrib sulcate, veins in cross-bars, veinlets reticulate. Inflor. lateral, often on a common peduncle forked at the apex, cymose, often pseudo-umbellate; bracts 2, at the apex of the peduncle. Flowers mostly white, dioecious (or polygamous), 5(-4)- merous. Sepals distinctly imbricate (rarely valvate), free or subconnate at the base, persistent. Stamens (10-) ~, in ♀ fls with short filaments and small sterile anthers; filaments thin, anthers versatile, base divaricate, attached in the middle, reflexed in bud, dehiscing lengthwise. Disc absent. Ovary free, superior, tomentose (or glabrous), (5-) ~-celled; ovules attached on the central axis. Styles free, (5-) ~, persistent, elongating after flowering in ♀, ±clavate, spreading, in ♂ ovary small, with minute styles. Berry glabrous (or hairy), often spotted by lenticels, oblong. Seeds ~, small, biconvex, oblong, immersed in pulp; testa cartilagineous, reticulate-pitted, dark when dry; albumen copious; integuments 1; embryo cylindrical straight, cotyledons short. Distr. Ca 30 spp. from W. Malaysia & Himalaya to Sachalin, Japan and Formosa, centering in China and Japan.

Description: Perennial or annual herbs, tufted or with an erect or creeping rhizome. Stems mostly leafy only at the base but sometimes also in the higher parts. Leaves spirally arranged, cylindric to flat and grass-like, mostly linear or filiform, sheathing at the base or entirely reduced to a sheath; sheaths open or closed, sometimes ciliate at the top. Flowers mostly proterogynous and anemophilous, solitary or in anthelas, panicles, corymbs or heads, usually small, actinomorphic, ♀ or (♂) (♀).Tepals 6, free, in two whorls, rarely only 3, glumaceous or coriaceous, rarely white. Stamens 3-6, when 3 opposite the outer tepals; filaments thin; anthers basifixed, introrse; cells opening longitudinally; pollen in tetrads. Ovary superior, 1-celled or divided by 3 septa into 3 cells; style short to long; stigmas 3, papillose; ovules 3, inserted at the base of the ovary or numerous and biseriate on 3 parietal placentas. Fruit a dry, 1- or 3-celled capsule, loculicidally 3-valved. Seeds sometimes tailed; embryo in the middle or at the base of the endosperm, small. Distr. Genera 8, with 250-300 species, especially in the temperate and cold regions of both hemispheres; in the tropics restricted to the mountainous districts.