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Obituary

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During a survey of the ferns, orchids, grasses and Cyperaceae of the Malay Peninsula, based on all specimens in the Singapore herbarium, a number of undescribed species were found. These are described below. It is hoped that full revised accounts of all these families, as represented in the Malay Peninsula, will be published later. Various changed of names, found necessary during the work, are also here published.

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The following new species of Eugenia are described in anticipation of a critical review of the genus in the Malay Peninsula which it is hoped will be published in the near future.

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The binomial Alocasia macrorrhiza  has been used in more than one sense.  Some of the plants which have passed under this name are economically very important and found in cultivation or as escapes in the tropics of both hemispheres; others are of little economic value and not known in cultivation or as escapes except in their native country and perhaps in some botanic gardens. Further, many experiments and analyses have been made in order to test to their value as food to men and animals, and the results have been sometimes conflicting. The existence of many varieties in some of the species called by this name is also a factor that has caused further ambiguity. The present paper is an attempt towards the clarification of this ambiguity. It is my pleasant duty to record here my thanks to Dr. R. C. BAKHUIZEN VAN DEN BRINK, Agricutural Deaprtment, Buitenzorg, Dr. G. J. A. TERRA, Horticultural Division, Batavia, Dr. C. G. G. J. VAN STEENIS, Botanic Gardens and Herbarium, Buitenzorg, Dr. K. BISWAS, Royal Botanic Gardens, Calcutta, and Mr. E. F. ALLEN, Agricultural Department, Teluk Anson, Perak, for procuring for me planting material of the species and varieties connected with the nomenclatural problems of Alocasia macrorrhiza and its varieties ; without this material it would have been impossible for me to clear many difficulties discussed in this paper.

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The results embodied in this paper are of a study undertaken with the view of arranging systematically the Singapore herbarium specimens of the Licuala species indigenous in the Malay Peninsula. The present world conditions, entailing the cessation of intercouse with certain botanical instituitions, the dislocation of the staff at some others, and the risks to parcels during transit across oceans have precluded my obtaining either critical notes of the type specimens preserved outside the Malay Peninsula, or a loan of the specimens themselves. Under such limitations the results of my undertaking would have been of little systematic value but for the valuable assistance derived from BECCARI"S monographic work on the genus published first in an abbreviated form in Webbia V, 1921, pp. 22 - 55, as a part of Recensione delle Palms del Vecchio Mondo appartenenti alla tribu delle Corypheae and then in an extended form in the Annals of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Calcutta, XIII, printed in 1931 and published in 1933 ( cited below as Calcutta Annals or Calc. Annals XIII, 1933 ). In this latter work BECCARI incorporated the results of the opportunities he had not only of consulting the type material of most of the species he studied and of comparing newer material with it, but also of making lengthy critical descriptions, analytical drawings and photographic plates of such specimens.

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The ferns of the genus Diplazium occurring in the Malay Peninsula are all, with the exception of D. esculentum and D. polypodioides, found on the ground in shady forest, many of them only in moist places near streams. They are especially characteristics of the valleys at medium elevations in the mountains, though a few species are common in the more open parts of the forest. There are no epiphytes and no climbing species among them. Nearly all have short erect rootstocks ( sometimes developing a short trunk) and tufted fronds, sterile and fertile fronds being almost alike. There is comparatively little difference of external form among the species of the same degree of division (i.e., among pinnate and among bipinnate species), and there is ofcourse a certain amount of variation according to age and influences of habitat, so that the clear distinction of species is at first sight difficult, and there has in fact been much confusion in the past. I have found, however, that the characters of the scales are most useful in distinguishing species of similar habit, and I believe that I have arrived at a clear distinction of our local species, with the possible exception of D. Prescottianum. I have been unable to identify four of our species with any described from places outside the Peninsula, and so have described them as new. There are undoubtedly a very large number of species within the Malayan region, but I think that a good many have been described more than once. The descriptions are, however, inadequate as a basis for comparison, and much herbarium material is incomplete (part only of a leaf, or lacking in scales, or representing an immature stage). A study of much material over a wide area is necessary before a proper account of the genus in the Malayan region can be given. Diplazium cordifolium provides a remarkable case of polymorphism leading to confusion of names. Young plants develop rather large simple fronds which are often fertile, and this stage may persist indefinitely, especially in the lowlands. Mature plants, however, often bear pinnate fronds with several pairs of pinnae. The two stages have been separately named ; and the fact that other superficially similar simply pinnate species have sometimes a few veins anastomosing has also led to confusion between these and the mature form of D. cordifolium. The young stages of species may be characteristic, and so useful diagnostically, in this genus as in other fern genera, but they have been little srudied. I have noted especially the early stages of D. bantamense and D. riparium. In the following account of the species found in the Malay Peninsula, I have not attempted to give full lists of synonyms. There has been so much confusion in the application of names that such a lists of synonyms would be difficult to compile accurately. I believe that the names used are all correctly applicable to our species ; but I differ in some cases from the usage of the recent book by Backer and Posthumus on the ferns of Java. In such cases, the synonymy is briefly discussed. As regards citation of specimens, this is done only where I believe there has been confusion in the past, or in the case of new species ; in cases of well characterized species such as D. accedens and D. cordifolium there seems no need for the publication of lists of specimens. Specimens collected in our Singapore Field Number series (started by Burkill in 1912) are cited as S.F.N. Duplicates of many of these will be found in other herbaria, in some cases under other names than those now given. A list of numbers at the end of this paper may therefore prove helpful. It should be noted that the earlier distribution labels did not bear the words "Singapore Field Number". A fairly full description is given for each species. To aid in the identification of specimens, the most distinctive characters in each description are italicised.

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For many years the apparent differences between broad-leaved and narrow-leaved forms of Axonopus compressus, or Carpet grass, has not been generally regarded as of specific rank, although the names Paspalum platycaule Poir, for the broad-leaved form and Paspalum compressum, for the narrow-leaved form, have been used by some persons. The original Paspalum compressum, Swartz., is however, undoubtedly the broad-leaved grass. These two Carpet grasses have now been recognised as distinct species, the broad-leaved form retaining the present name ( Axonopus compressus Beauv.), while Miss Agnes Chase, an American authority, has defined the narrow-leaved grass as a new species, and named it Axonopus affinis, as follows :- Axonopus affinis, sp. novo.

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In my earlier paper on the subject, I published observations made on a number of trees during the years 1927 - 1931, and summarized previous observations published elsewhere on the behaviour of trees in the eastern tropics. I also gave a short account of the climate of Singapore. The main items of new information arising from my own observations was that a number of deciduous trees had fairly constant leaf-periods, which had no relation to the yearly calendar; and the conclusion drawn from this was that the length of leaf-period in such trees is due to primarily to senescence of leaves, the climate of Singapore being so uniform as to have little or no control. Subsequent observations, in some cases over a total period of ten years or more, have confirmed the fact that many deciduous trees have fairly constant leaf-periods not related to climate; but they have also shown many curious irregularities which are not always easy to explain. It is clear that there is every variety of response from almost complete independence of climate change to extreme susceptibility, and a tree that is regular in behaviour for a time may later show an unexpected change (e.g. Koompassia).  My earlier generalizations therefore need modification in some measure, and a fuller discussion of the whole subject is given below, followed by details of behaviour of individual trees.

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Homalomena plants in general, but more especially those native of Malay (Malay Peninsula) and the Sunda Islands (Sumatra, Java, Borneo and small islands within the area), vary a great deal in all their vegetative characters, and to a certain extent in their reproductive characters also, the variations depending not only on the age of the plant but also on such environmental conditions as soil, exposure, flooding and humidity. The greatest variability is noticed in species which grow on stream sides and on rocks near waterfalls and streams, where they are subject to a graded intensity and frequensy of flood, spray and to a certain extent, of isolation. This ecologic diversity within the plants of the same species or variety makes an analysis of the genus into its constituent species and varieties an extremely difficult problem. A key that would cover all these variations would become too bulky to be of any practical use. The task of analysing the genus into its species would be much simplified if specimens of as many Homalomena species as possible were collected again to show the range of variation, and if their spathes and flowers and fruits were preserved in spirit. While naming and arranging Malayan species of this genus, I noticed that some systematists have not taken due cogniznace of their range of variability, so that, in some cases, either one and the same name has been used for different species because their specimens agree in colour (e.g. H. purpurascens) or many names have been bestowed on the same species because the specimens studied showed marked differences among themselves concerning colour, size, shape of leaves (e.g. H. obliqua, H. Griffithii, H. Kingii, etc.). Evidence is not lacking to show that some species are purely "geographical", that is, one and the same species is made to pass under different names according to the country of origin of the specimens to be named, (H. paludosa and H. propinqua ; H. coerulescens, H. rubra, etc.). In order to clear the nomenclatural tangles of the Malayan species, therefore, I was obliged to study many non-Malayan species, but not so many as to consider this study of mine as a monographic revision of the Indo-Malaysian Homalomena. I am much indebted to the Directors of the Herbaria at Kew, Leiden, and Buitenzorg for their co-operation either by sending on loan some of the authentic specimens in their herbaria, or by supplying either information concerning the types or copies of such original descriptions as were not available in Singapore. In citing the exsiccatae, I have omitted all reference to the herbarium when the specimens cited are conserved in the Singapore herbarium, but have inserted appropriate abbreviations to indicate the other herbaria, the initials "HB" having been adopted for the Buitenzorg Herbarium (Herbarium Bogoriense). For the nomenclature adopted in this paper for types, see Gard. Bull. Straits Settlements IX part 3, 1937 pp. 285 - 309.

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The contractions C.F. (Conservator of Forests) and SFN (Singapore Field Number) are used to indicate the collections made by the Forest Department, S.S. & F.M.S. and the Botanic Gardens, Singapore respectively.  Both of these Departments use a single series of field numbers which serve also as Herbarium numbers.

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The bulk of this paper is composed of the results of my investigations of species of Hopea belonging to the Bracteata and Dryobalanoides groups. These results are somewhat cataclysmic, involving the addition of ten names to the list of Malay Peninsula species, but as I have been fortunate in being able to study all the critical material concerned, it is hoped that reasonable stability in the nomenclature of Hopea will result. In preparing the botanical notes for Desch's Commercial Timbers of the Malay Peninsula : I, the genus Shorea (Mal. For. Rec. 12 (1936) ) I endeavoured to straighten out the nomenclature of our species as far as possible at the time, but, for one reason or another, some species received tentative names only.In the last paper in this series a few of these species were given more permanent binomials, while in this paper most of the remainder are considered. The recent aquisition of flowering herbarium material of Shorea atrinervosa, S. lumutensis, and S. Meadiana, has made it possible to describe these three species, all of which are in Eushorea group, while additional field and herbarium study has revealed the desirability of changing the names of status of several other species. One of the name-changes involved is that of Shorea eximia (Miq.) Scheff. to S. ovalis (Korth.) Bl. I mention this in particular, because it illustrates very nicely the sort of problem the systematist has frequently to tackle in this region. S. ovalis is based upon a sterile specimen of seedling leaves which differ very markedly from those of the mature tree. Thus, before the species could be interpreted it was essential, firstly, to see the type specimens, and secondly, to have representative collections of immature stages of this form for comparison. The first of these precepts is generally appreciated, although not always followed by the systematist, owing to impatience or necessity : but to the second, I think, inadquate attention is given. The much despised, sterile, immature specimen is frequently the key to interpretation of early, obscure species, which play such havoc with accepted nomenclature if they are left too long in obscurity, and it is therefore very desirable that the intelligent collection of such material should be encouraged. The description of only three new Bornean species is given in this paper, namely Shorea leptoclados, S. Flemmichii, and Dryobalanops Keithii. Although little is offered for publication, the study of Bornean dipterocarps has made good progress during the year. For this we are particularly indebted to Messrs. H. G. Keith and C. O. Flemmich, the forest officers in North Borneo and brunei, respectively. In addition to continuing to pursue their extremely energetic policy of collection of herbarium material, these gentlemen organized most interesting and comprehensive tours for me, on which I had the invaluable opportunity of studying the dipterocarps in the field. Dr. van Slooten's visit to Kepong, during April, 1938, did much to stimulate systematic research on the dipterocarps, and his generosity in placing at my disposal the valuable early Dutch collections is greatly appreciated. I am also indebted to the Forest Botanist of the Forest Research Institute, Dehra Dun, for sending on loan his entire collections of Shorea, Hopea, and Balanocarpus; to the Director of the Forest Research Institute, Buitenzorg ; and to numerous other botanists and forest officers whose assistance, if less spectacular, is no less valued. These notes are arranged as in my previous papers, the concluding paragraph under each heading being brief precis for the benefit of Malayan forest officers. In previous papers, under citation of specimens, I have followed Foxworthy in prefixing numbers in the Federated Malay States Forest Department series with the letters "C.F." I propose, in future, to substitute for this prefix "Forest Dept. F.M.S." The original specimens in this series are, in all cases, preserved in the herbarium of Forest Research Institute at Kepong, for which I intend to employ the contraction "Kep." proposed by Lanjouw in Chronica Botanica 3 : 347 (1937).