Abstract:
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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Up to the present time no attempt has been made to publish a conspectus of the Moss-flora of the Malay Peninsula. Mitten's Musci Ind. Or. (Journ. Linn. Soc., Bot., Vol. iii, Suppl.) contains some half-dozen records, the only data for which are "Malacca, Griffith." Fleischer has collected a considerable number of mosses, mostly in and around Singapore; these are recorded in the four volumes of his Musci der Flora von Buitenzorg (1900-1922). A short list is also given by Hj. Moeller of Straits Settlements mosses in Hedwigia, lx, 313, comprising some thirty species. Finally the present writer published descriptions of forty new species from the Peninsula in Bull. Torr. Boi. Club, 51 ; pp. 225-259 (1924). The great majority of entries, therefore, in the following list are unpublished records, and are based on collections made by various botanists, principally H. N. Ridley (R. in the list), I. H. Burkill, R. E. Holttum, and C. H. Binstead, with other collectors from the Singapore Botanic Gardens. The system I have followed is very largely that of Brotherus, in Engler and Prantl, Pflanzenfamilien, Musci, Ed. I. The general character and relationships of the Moss-flora follow naturally very closely on the lines of the higher plants. The endemic species are comparatively few, and I think are not likely to be greatly increased; for while undescribed species are constantly collected, this is pretty well counterbalanced by the discovery of the extension of the range of supposed endemics (of Malaya) to neighbouring areas. On the other hand a very large percentage of the species have a remarkably narrow range of distribution beyond the peninsula itself, especially the Malay-Burma-Assam, Malay-Borneo, Malay-Philippines, and Malay-Java areas. It would be of some interest to give lists of these species, but it is preferable to wait till the distribution of the mosses in the peninsula itself is more completely known; the present list gives a basis for such a conspectus, but it is only a beginning. Several of the States have been litttle more than sampled, for mosses, and nearly every collection that is made still contains some new record, either for the State, the Peninsula or for science. This may be illustrated by the fact that since the publication of my paper already referred to, in 1924, thirty undescribed species have come into my hands, and these appear, perforce, as "ined." in the present list. Among special features of interest in the moss flora may be mentioned the prevalence of species of Calymperaceae (Syrrhopodon and Calymperes) a most interesting and striking Family, having a peculiar distribution mostly to tropical regions, and rarely found at any great distance from the sea, though in no sense maritime plants. This is curiously contrasted with the poor representation of some of the larger genera. Thus of Bryum (between 800 and 900 species) six are recorded from the peninsula : of Campylopus (about 500 species), three; of Macromitrium (415 species) ten; while of Syrrhopodon (235 species), there are thirty-one in the following list and of Calymperes (200 species), twenty-four. A further genus which is highly represented here is Acroporium (Sematophyllum Mitt. p.p.). Of about 90 known species ( as the genus is understood in Brotherus, Musci, Ed. i), 33 are recorded for the peninsula. Here however we have to do with a genus which clearly has its principal centre of distribution in the Indo-Malay region ; whereas this can scarcely be said of the Calmyperaceae, which have an equally high distribution in tropical Africa, Madagascar and the Mascarene Is., tropical America, and Polynesia. The total number of species in the following list is about 340, compared with 650 recorded from Java; and with more systematic collecting the number is certain to be very largely increased.

 

 

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The present paper is an attempt to describe the vegetation on the upper part of Gunong Belumut, a mountain situated in the south of the Malay Peninsula, about the middle of the State of Johore. The summit is 3,321 feet above sea level, and the area here dealt with is that lying between an altitude of about 2,800 feet and the summit. The writer visited this locality in May 1923, in company with Mr. G. R. Fulton, Assistant Government Geologist, to whom he wishes to express his very cordial thanks for the opportunity of making the expedition. The route followed was that made by Mr. J. G. Watson, Conservator of Forests, Johore, who had ascended the mountain a short time previously. Except a few plants obtained by Mr. Watson, no collections had been made on the mountain.  The jungle track starts from about the 14th. mile on the Kluang-Mersing road. From this point to the Sungei Berhidong at the foot of G. Belumut is about 11 or 12 miles, the track crossing the ridge of G. Chemundong at a height of 1,265 feet. From the camp by S. Berhidong, at 450 ft. above sea, to the summit of the mountain is about three miles. The lower part of the ascent is through rather dry Dipterocarp forest, with Bertam (Eugeissonia) as the chief undergrowth. At about 2,500 ft. a transition begins to occur to a forest of crowded trees of much lower stature, gradually more and more covered with liverworts and mosses. Within about 300 ft. the change is complete from a fairly high forest to the mossy elfin forest which covers most of the area between 2,800 ft. and the summit. On the northern slope however the mossy forest is replaced by an open scrub in which for the most part Matonia pectinata is dorminant, with stunted shrubs and trees growing above it at intervals (Plate I). The transition from the forest to the scrub is very sharp near the summit, but less so at a lower altitudes. The name Belumut is descriptive of the mossy condition of the summit. A camp was made on the summit of the mountain, and seven days spent there. As complete a collection as possible was made both of flowering plants and cryptograms, and the writer is greatly indebted to Mr. I. H. Burkill for the determination of the former, and to Mr. H. N. Dixon for the determination of mosses.  The writer is responsible for naming the Pteridophytes and has attempted to identify the more important of the liverworts which form such a conspicuous feature of the vegetation.      

 

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The literature on the biology of pollination and fruit production of coconut is extremely sparse and what litle is available is distributed in numerous books and periodicals so that investigators have experienced great difficulties in consulting them. An attempt is made here to bring together all the available studies on the subject, including my own observations, a part of which have already been published in the Poona Agricultural College Magazine and the Agricultural Journal of India (10). I am indebted to Mr. I. H. Burkill for the information quoted in this paper from the German and Dutch books and to Mr. F. N. Chasen for the identification of some of the insect visitors to coconut flowers.

 

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It is not possible that Phyllocactus hookeri, a Brazilian member of the Cactus family, can be a plant which was treasured in China in the time of the Sung Dynasty (960 to 1278 A. D.); but from information very kindly supplied to the Gardens by Mr. Tan Tang Niah, J. P., President of the Chong Cheng School in Singapore, it seems that in his native Amoy it is now identified with the "Kheng-fa" plant of the Chinese classics.  

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It was pointed out to me by Mr. Burkill that in the specimens placed under Semecarpus curtisii, King, in the Singapore Herbarium, there was a difference between those from the North and those from the South of the Peninsula. On examination, it was found that there was a distinct difference, almost enough to admit of a new species being erected, had there not been one plant (Ridley 10566, from Ulu Selangor) which was intermediate between the two forms both in locality and in character.

 

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Since the publication of Mr. Ridley's "List of the Fern Allies and Characeae of the Malay Peninsula" (Journ, S. B., R. Asiatic Society No. 80, 1919, p. 139) the following species of Lycopodium not there recorded have been collected.

 

Abstract:
In June 1924 an Oberonia was found in some plenty at the foot of the Main range of the Peninsula near Tanjong Malim, which in cultivation in Singapore produced flowers freely in September: it proves to be a species new to the Peninsula and appears to be undescribed. It is here named O. fungum-olens from the smell of its flowers being just such as is given out by species of Fomes and other similar fungi. The colour of these small but numerous flowers is likewise suggestive of these fungi. Its affinity is with O. anceps, Lindl. and O. spathulata, Lindl. which are found rather widely in Eastern Malaysia.  Ridley remarks of O. anceps that it is "the largest native species" (Mat. Fl. Mal. Penins. Monocots., I, 1908, p. 18); but this new one is larger: so also is O. spathulata, which was unrecorded for the Peninsula in 1908.  

 

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