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From Mr. R. E. Holttum, Director of the Botanic Gardens, Singapore, I have received in 1926 and 1927 two lots of duplicate specimens of ferns from the Peninsula. The specimens were of extraordinary interest to me, because I am now engaged in the determination of three very large collections of ferns from Borneo, in connection with a critical revision of the whole fern-flora of that large island, based on examination of type specimens received on loan from the leading herbaria in Europe and America. It soon became clear to me that the fern floras of Borneo and the Malay Peninsula are very intimately related, having a very large number of species in common. I found that some of the specimens from the Peninsula so kindly sent by Mr. Holttum were perfectly identical with others from Borneo, but in not a few cases different names were given to them. In July 1926 Mr. H. N. Ridley published his large paper, "The ferns of the Malay Peninsula" (Journ. Malayan Branch, R. Asiatic Soc., 4, part 1), which work I have studies with considerable interest. It appears that Mr. Ridley has identified the great majority of his specimens at Kew, and has in several cases without criticism adopted Beddome's species.  All modern pteridologists agree in taking the species in a narrower sense than Baker and Beddome, and to me several of Ridley's species are an assemblage of a number of most distinct forms. On the other hand he has adopted some of the species recently described by van Alderwerelt van Rosenburgh, who has described an immense number of new species which are scarcely all well founded, and not rarely identical with species previously described. Unfortunately a large number of his new species are not represented by authentic specimens in European herbaria, even not in Leiden and without examination of such specimens it is in most cases rather impossible to know whether his species are valid ones or not. As a certain number of the species adopted by Mr. Ridley were unknown to me, and others seemed to be wrongly named, I asked Mr. Holttum to send me a loan specimens of those species from the Singapore Botanic Gardens Herbarium, and very kindly he did so.  Having thus had specimens of most species enumerated in Mr. Ridley's list, and having compared them with an immense quantity of material from Borneo and with numerous type specimens, I have been able to verify the determinations, or in several cases give the species their right names. In the present paper a part of my critical remarks are published. It contains descriptions of a couple of new species, the first record of several species for the Peninsula, and a revision of some groups of closely related species.

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In the Peninsula all Ocimum species are cultivated plants, but frequently one comes across them as escapes and weeds in the settled areas. They are grown chiefly for the purposes of worship or for their medicinal value, or again for the purpose of scenting cooked preparations. O. sanctum, L., is sacred to the Hindu deities Krishna and Vishnu, and is frequently cultivated by the Hindus from Northern India near their dwellings, in places where they usually say their prayers. Some believe that the mere presence of the Ocimum round about the houses keep away the mosquitoes. An infusion of its leaves is used, either alone or mixed with that of other plants, internally to cure the minor disorders of the respiratory system and also irregular menstruation in women, and externally as a cure for the skin diseases, headache and earache. Medicinally leaves of any of the Ocimum species are considered good, but leaves of O. sanctum, L. and O. Basilicum, L. are regarded as superior to others. Leaves of O. canum, Sims, and of the white-flowered, hairy varieties of O. Basilicum, L. are used in culinary preparations. The leaves and calyces of O. Basilicum, L. var. pilosum, Benth. has been reported to be a frequent adulterant of the patchouly (Pogostemon Cablin, Benth.) prepared for export from this country. (Gildemeister & Hoffmann in the Volatile Oils Engl. Ed. (1900) 657 ; and Prain in Journ. As. Soc. Bengal LXXIV pt. 2 Extra No. (1907) 702 & 709 ). In his notes on the Malayan drugs, Ridley notes that the flowers of O. Basilicum, L. form one of the ingredients used in root decoction of Phyllanthus Niruri, L. given to cure cough in children, and that an infusion of the seeds O. gratissimum, L. is drunk for gonorrhea, and also in the morning as laxative. (Agri. Bull. S.S. & F.M.S. V,- 1906 - 248 & 278.) Being introduced plants in the Peninsula, the Malays have no fixed vernacular name for the Ocimum species. Kemangi is the usual name for O. canum, Sims, but it may also be used for the white-flowered varieties of O. Basilicum that are used in cooking. Silasi or Selaseh, a corruption of the Sanskrit name Tulasi for the Ocimums, Pokoh derived from the Chinese name Poh Hok for peppermint, and Ruku are used indiscriminately to all the species of the Ocimum, but rarely to O. canum, Sims. The last two names are usually used in the plural form as Ruku-Ruku and Pokoh-Pokoh. The singulars being seldom used. As in the Malay language the plural form, when applied to plants, usually implies that the plants bear in some way a resemblance to the some other plant native of Malaya, as for instance aromatic Adenosma capitatum, Benth., which is now known to the Malays as Ruku hutan. The word Kemangi is usually used alone, but all the others may be applied alone or with the adjective merah, hitam, puteh or besar to describe the general size or colour of the plants in the living condition. Oku or Oku-Oku, are apparently corruptions of the Ruku or Ruku-Ruku. The white-flowered, hairy varieies of O. Basilicum, L., approach so near to O. canum, Sims, that botanically it is very difficult to separate them as distinct species except by the larger size of all the parts of O. Basilicum, L. The Malays also do not seem to make any difference between them, and the varieties of O. Basilicum, L. have the same vernacular name and uses as O. canum, Sims. All the above names are also applied by the Malays to Hyptis suaveolens, Poir, another aromatic plant foreign origin belonging to the same family as the Ocimums. The most usual adjective that accompanies the names in this caes is hutan to show that the plant is a weed or wild in the Peninsula. The key and the descriptions of Ocimum species given by Ridley in the Flora of the Malay Peninsula II (1923) 643, are not very satisfactory for the identification of the species occurring in the Peninsula, and hence the key given below has been prepared after study of the plants in the herbarium as well as in the living condition.

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The primary object of this note is to restore to its proper rank, the species Neesia synandra, Masters, the specific status of which has long been in doubt, and also to show the limits of distribution of all the three species found in the Malay Peninsula. That Masters had made a careful examination of the type specimen of his species is quite clear from the generic characters given by him under Neesia in Hook. f. Flor. Brit. Ind. I pt. 2 (1874) 352, which as far as the leaves and flowers were concerned, were all a result of his own observations made of the type specimen of his species. But the confusion occurred owing to a mistake he made in giving almost all the important characters of his species under the generic description, where they escaped the attention of the botanists who tried to study his species, giving the minor ones under the description of his species. It was probably his intention to show the characters of the genus Neesia as he had found it in the Malay Peninsula; applicable, at least in the characters of the filaments, to Neesia altissima, Bl., the only other Neesia species known then; in fact he himself draws attention to this fact under the descritpion of his species. The result of the transference, which Masters unwittingly made, of the important specific characters to the generic descritpion was that Neesia synandra, Mast., was either regarded as a doubtful species, or confused with others quite distinct. Hence a detailed description of Neesia synandra, Mast., and a sufficient synonymy of all the three species occurring in the Peninsula together with an artificial key are given below so as to make their distinctions and their specific ranks quite clear.

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The crude medicinal substances described in the following pages were collected by Mr. I. H. Burkill M.A., when Director of Gardens, Straits Settlements. The specimens were obtained from Chinese druggists in Malaya - men of considerable experience of drugs. It is well known that Chinese divide vegetable drugs into two classes: the first is called Kuan Yao, or official remedies, chiefly contained in the great herbal, Pen ts'ao kang mu, and Ts'ao yao, consisting of herbs and roots generally used as domestic remedies. The identification of most of these samples was made at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, and I have to thank the Director and the staffs of the Herbarium, the Museums, and the Jodrell Laboratory for their ever ready assistance. An examination of the original collection of Chinese drugs made by Daniel Hanbury and Porter Smith and others, stored in the Museum of the Pharmaceutical Society has been a fruitful source of information. The co-operation in this inquiry of Dr. Augustine Henry is gratefully acknowledged. Stationed in China for some years, Dr. Henry succeeded in collecting a considerable number of plants yielding drugs the origin of which was before unknown. His knowledge of botany in addition to that of Chinese has enabled him to make valued corrections and additions to the list.  No work on Chinese commercial products would be complete without reference to the publications of Sir Alexander Hosie, Chief of the Imperial Customs, whose lamented death occured in 1925. His notes on the trade in Manchuria, Mongolia, and Szechwan have been great use, and I am greatly indebted to Lady Hosie for placing at my disposal some sheets of his templated but unfortunately unfinished Dictionary of Economic Products of China.  Dr. Bernard Read, of Peking, and the distinguished pharmacognosist, Mr. E.M. Holmes, have also contributed many helpful suggestions. It has been considered desirable that the names of the drugs should appear in Chinese characters followed by the Romanized Mandarin transliterations. For this purpose  the kind help has been obtained of Rev. T. W. Pearce, LL.D.,O.B.E., of the London Mission ; Rev. H. S. Cliff, of the China Inland Mission ; and Rev. S. B. Drake, of the Baptist Mission. In several cases the Cantonese pronunciation has been supplied, and as the Chinese pharmacists in the Malay Peninsula are Cantonese, it agrees closely with the names written in Malay upon the labels of the samples. These are enclosed in inverted commas. Owing to the fragmentary specimens of some kind of drugs consisting of fine slices of stems, roots,and barks, it has not been possible to trace the origin with any degree of certainty. A wide field of research lies open to the student of pharmacognosy in identifying these specimens with plants of authentic origin. The small list of mineral and animal substances are not scientifically classified : many of the specimens of the latter class recall the unpalatable drugs found in European pharmacy 200 years ago. Mr. Burkill has done excellent service in bringing together for the first time a collection of drugs used by the Chinese in the Malay Peninsula.  From it we are able to learn that while the Chinese on the whole adhere to the use of drugs of their own country, probably on account of the geographical position of Singapore and neighbourhood, the materia medica has been decidedly influenced by the introduction of local and Indian products.

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The crude medicinal substances described in the following pages were collected by Mr. I. H. Burkill M.A., when Director of Gardens, Straits Settlements. The specimens were obtained from Chinese druggists in Malaya - men of considerable experience of drugs. It is well known that Chinese divide vegetable drugs into two classes: the first is called Kuan Yao, or official remedies, chiefly contained in the great herbal, Pen ts'ao kang mu, and Ts'ao yao, consisting of herbs and roots generally used as domestic remedies. The identification of most of these samples was made at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, and I have to thank the Director and the staffs of the Herbarium, the Museums, and the Jodrell Laboratory for their ever ready assistance. An examination of the original collection of Chinese drugs made by Daniel Hanbury and Porter Smith and others, stored in the Museum of the Pharmaceutical Society has been a fruitful source of information. The co-operation in this inquiry of Dr. Augustine Henry is gratefully acknowledged. Stationed in China for some years, Dr. Henry succeeded in collecting a considerable number of plants yielding drugs the origin of which was before unknown. His knowledge of botany in addition to that of Chinese has enabled him to make valued corrections and additions to the list.  No work on Chinese commercial products would be complete without reference to the publications of Sir Alexander Hosie, Chief of the Imperial Customs, whose lamented death occured in 1925. His notes on the trade in Manchuria, Mongolia, and Szechwan have been great use, and I am greatly indebted to Lady Hosie for placing at my disposal some sheets of his templated but unfortunately unfinished Dictionary of Economic Products of China.  Dr. Bernard Read, of Peking, and the distinguished pharmacognosist, Mr. E.M. Holmes, have also contributed many helpful suggestions. It has been considered desirable that the names of the drugs should appear in Chinese characters followed by the Romanized Mandarin transliterations. For this purpose  the kind help has been obtained of Rev. T. W. Pearce, LL.D.,O.B.E., of the London Mission ; Rev. H. S. Cliff, of the China Inland Mission ; and Rev. S. B. Drake, of the Baptist Mission. In several cases the Cantonese pronunciation has been supplied, and as the Chinese pharmacists in the Malay Peninsula are Cantonese, it agrees closely with the names written in Malay upon the labels of the samples. These are enclosed in inverted commas. Owing to the fragmentary specimens of some kind of drugs consisting of fine slices of stems, roots,and barks, it has not been possible to trace the origin with any degree of certainty. A wide field of research lies open to the student of pharmacognosy in identifying these specimens with plants of authentic origin. The small list of mineral and animal substances are not scientifically classified : many of the specimens of the latter class recall the unpalatable drugs found in European pharmacy 200 years ago. Mr. Burkill has done excellent service in bringing together for the first time a collection of drugs used by the Chinese in the Malay Peninsula.  From it we are able to learn that while the Chinese on the whole adhere to the use of drugs of their own country, probably on account of the geographical position of Singapore and neighbourhood, the materia medica has been decidedly influenced by the introduction of local and Indian products.

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The following pages contain a list of the Higher Plants known from Kuala Lumpur and its vicinity. The area which the list covers is roughly that included in a circle of which the centre is Kuala Lumpur and the radius is fifteen miles. The circle has been stretched to include nearby places from which important collections have come, but collections have not been made from every place within it. The montane flora of the Main Range has been excluded in an endeavour to make the list contain only lowland species, but it has not been possible to do this accurately, as very few specimens were found to bear any indication of the altitude at which they were located. The following are the localities from which have come the collections utilised in the compilation of the list: - Ampang Forest Reserve, Ayer Hitam Forest Reserve, Batang Berjuntai Forest Reserve, Batu Tiga, Batu Caves,  Bukit Belachan Forest Reserve,  Bukit Cheraka Forest Reserve, Bukit Lagong Forest Reserve, Bukit Raja Forest Reserve, Bukit Tarek Forest Reserve,  Bukit Tunggal Forest Reserve, Damansara, Dusun Tua, Kajang, Kanching, Kepong, Klang Gates, Kuala Lumpur, Kuang, Petaling, Public Gardens, Kuala Lumpur, Pudu, Rantau, Seminyih, Sungai Buloh Forest Reserve, Ulu Gombak, Ulu Langkat, Weld's Hill Forest Reserve.  During recent years, the Forest Department has collected very largely in the vicinity of Kuala Lumpur, and full advantage has been taken of these collections in compiling the list.  Towards the end of 1921 H. L. Hume made large collections for the F. M. S. Museums in the Batang Berjuntai and Rantau Panjang Forest Reserves, at Klang Gates, in the Ulu Gombak, and at various places close to Kuala Lumpur. These collections, along with the remainder of the F.M.S. Museums Herbariums, have now been loaned indefinitely to the Botanic Gardens, Singapore. Ridley and his subordinate Goodenough collected at Kuala Lumpur while inspecting forests from 1889 onwards. Smaller collections in this area have been made by Burkill, Kloss, Henderson, Milsum, Sands, and Mohamed Nur. The writer is indebted to Dr. Foxworthy for much help, and for access to the herbarium of the Forest Department.

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In the previous issue of the Gardens' Bulletin appears a list of all mosses hitherto collected in the Malay Peninsula, prepared by Mr. H. N. Dixon, who has himself determined the majority of the specimens concerned. Our best thanks are due to Mr. Dixon for the very great amount of work which he has put into the preparation of this paper. Before receiving Mr. Dixon's list, I had compiled a list of mosses found in the Singapore Gardens, with such first-hand observations as I had been able to make concerning their habits of growth, as it seemed that few observations of the kind had been recorded. This list is here printed as a supplement to Mr. Dixon's paper. It contains no references to collectors or numbers (these can be found in the complete list) but only names of species and such information as to habit and habitat as I have found on herbarium labels or collected myself. Not having made a critical study of mosses, in many cases I can only speak of the habitats of individual specimens collected by me and identified by Mr. Dixon, but there are a few common species which it is easy to recognise at sight, and of these it is possible to speak with greater certainty. The Gardens present a fairly wide range of habitat for mosses, from the most exposed positions on the ground or on trees to the shade of the rockeries and the Gardens Jungle; but there is no place so moist and shady as much of the natural jungle of the Peninsula. The conditions are on the whole artificial, and this is reflected in the character of the moss flora; the more typical forest species are infrequent or absent. A striking feature of the list, referred to by Mr. Dixon in the introduction to his paper, is the large proportion of species of Syrrhopodon and Calymperes; this is more marked in Singapore than in the north of the Peninsula. In Singapore Island 32 species of the two genera have been found, out of 51 for the whole Peninsula; from the north fewer are recorded, 16 only having been found in Penang (mostly in the Waterfall Gardens or on the hill) which after Singapore is probably the most-collected area. In recent collections I have paid particular attention to these genera, and in searching Penang Gardens it was with difficulty that they could be found, whereas in Singapore they occur on tree trunks in any slightly shaded spot. It is possible that the more seasonal climate of Penang and the north of the Peninsula is not so favourable for these mosses; in Penang a pronounced dry season early in the year is the rule. They are not usually found in dense shade, but in light shade, on tree trunks, and sometimes on rocks or on the ground (according to the species and the conditions). They do not usually grow in full sunlight, except some of the more resistant species, (e.g. S. borneense ; this grows in a close cushion which can retain moisture). During rather dry weather they are often much shrivelled up. It is perhaps their habit of growing in somewhat exposed places, together with inability to withstand severe drought, which causes their restrictions, on the whole, to places with a fairly heavy and evenly distirbuted rainfall, or a continuously high atmospheric humidity.

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This list is intended to supplement the enumeration of Fraser Hill plants published by Burkill and Holttum in this Bulletin, Vol. III, pp. 33-110. The material from which it is compiled was obtained by a native collector working under the writer's supervision in August 1923, and by Mr. R. E. Holttum in the following month. A few plants from the collections of Messrs. Burkill and Holttum have been added, where these have been determined since the publication of the original list. All the plants, except where otherwise noted, were collected between the 3800 and 4200 feet contours.

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Mr. Ridley's Flora of the Malay Peninsula, south of 7N. Lat. having being published and in regard to the higher plants the taxonomic foundation having been prepared thereby, it is appropriate that stock be taken at once of the knowledge that we possess upon the distribution of plants within the Peninsula.. Towards that objective the following report is a first step. It brings out no scientific conclusions; but it indicates as concisely as possible in what measure the parts of the Peninsula have been botanised. A traveller touching at Penang will find it in the names of all who have collected plants in that island, and where their collections lie. The resident - let us say at Ipoh, but any name will serve - will obtain an estimate of how much remains to be done in the collecting of information within his circle. The administrator, who has power to direct collecting, will feel guided as to the way in which he can most profitably dispose his resources. The student, examining the herbaria which exist, will find in it a vade-mecum for the interpretation of too-often inadequate labels. The report is in three parts- (1) the collectors - an alphabetical list of all whose names are known to occur upon the labels of Malayan herbarium specimens, embodying sufficient biographical information for our purpose; (2) the collections, under which head the whole Peninsula is considered by squares of a half-degree of latitude and longitude - 71 of them - and the work done in each set down; and (3) the collecting places, an index to the places-names which occur on the labels in herbaria, and at the same time an index to part 2. There are two maps in the report. Upon the first the squares are all marked. These squares explain themselves, except that 1a has been stretched a little to the west that all the Butang islands may be got into it; and square ok has been stretched a little to the east that Pulau Aor and the islets near it may be included. A complete square of level land has a surface of about 1,225 square miles, a large area for our purpose, but to deal with subdivisions proves impossible. Of the 71, 28 alone have the full complement of land: the rest are all in part of sea. The first map carries a figure in each square, the figure being the number of plants of the orders contained in the first volume of Mr. Ridley's Flora, which can be proved to occur within each square. Add all the figures together and the total of 9,410 is obtained : but by reason of double and treble records for squares, the data compressed into the map by a vey long way exceed the figure, and have been laborius to collect. That is why a halt has had to be called at the end of examination of the first volume, but the data on the data map do really suffice for the estimation of our knowledge in the form of a very approximate percentage. The second map graphically indicates the percentages arrived at. The lowness of these percentages as a whole is surprising. They read us a warning against hasty conclusions: they tell us how little we know; and that the square of Mount Ophir carries a figure so low as 12 and the square of Gunong Tahan one so low as 18 , is material for consideration. One more remark. The three Settlements, - Penang, Malacca and Singapore have received considerable attention, and a list of the places in them where at plants have been collected would be long and extend Part 3 much; but to make one has not seemed necessary, for collectors' labels in regard to them have rarely proved misleading. Village names from these three Settlements, therefore, will only for special reasons + to be found in the list. Good maps on a large scale are to be had and meet the rest of the need. It is evident that orderly work can be based on the report. In concluding these introductory remarks, Mr. Ridley, Colonel Kelsall, Dr. Gimlette and Dr. Foxworthy must be thanked for the kind way in which they supplied information.            

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The volume published under the above title by the Oxford University Press comes from the able pen of Father E. Blatter. Having lived for many years in India he has had exceptional opportunities to study both indigenous and introduced species of the Palm family. This, coupled with a keen interest in the subject, has resulted in the production of a book, useful alike to the botanist and the layman.  Much useful information is contained in the volume, well supported by numerous photographs and figures which are a very great help for identification purposes. The introduction contains much useful information (i) in regard to the Geographic Distribution of Palmae generally, (ii) a short history of the exploration of the Palm flora in India together with a detailed account of its distribution and (iii) a general description of Palms couched in popular language.

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