DR. O. STAPF ON THE FLORA OF MOUNT KINABALU. 95 
B. THE FLORA oF THE Primary ForEsT AND BUSH ABOVE 3000 FEET. 
This flora as represented in the collection comprises about 258 Phanerogams, mostly 
trees and shrubs, 32 Ferns, and from 6 to 9 Selaginellacee. As it constitutes the great 
bulk of the Phanerogams, we may assume that the proportions of the endemic element in 
the subsequent zones of altitude are about the same as already indicated for the total 
vegetation (see p. 91). Almost exactly two-thirds of the Phanerogams are endemic 
species. The endemism, however, increases with increasing altitude to a certain point, 
when it becomes stable. It is 47 per cent. from 3000 to 5000 feet (exclusive), 65 per cent. 
from 5000 to 6000 feet (inclusive), and 68 per cent. from above 6000 feet, whilst it was 
not quite 20 per cent. in the hill zone. 
1. Indo-Malayan Elements. 
If we designate all the non-endemic species of the collection, the distribution of which is 
limited to Tropical Asia, with the exclusion of Arabia and with the addition of Tropical 
Australia, New Guinea, New Caledonia, and Polynesia, as Indo-Malayan elements, and 
if we add to them those endemic species which are representatives of such species, or, 
in any case, distinctly allied to them, we find about 240 species, or 93 per cent., belonging to 
this class, the remainder being Austral-Antarctic (16) or Boreal (2) elements. The Boreal 
elements are herbs from the lowest part of the primary forest, whilst the Austral-Antarctic 
ones are almost peculiar to the highest zones. If we therefore distribute the Indo- 
Malayan elements according to the three zones, we get the following figures :— 
Second zone 97 per cent. 
Third zone 90 al 
Fourth zone 71 i 
(i.) Closer Affinities. 
The Indo-Malayan elements may be classed according to their closer affinities as follows 
below. The assignment of a species to one of these classes is, of course, arbitrary to a 
certain degree, and we cannot expect to find any strict lines to go by. The classification 
should be taken as a whole and judged from its average results, when, I believe, it will 
be found tolerably correct. The fact that a species is found on Kinabalu and in the 
Himalaya does not justify in itself its designation as a Himalayan element or type if this 
name is to have a meaning at all. If the same species or representative species are found 
in Java and Sumatra or in the Malay Peninsula, and if the natural group of which they 
form part has its centre in Malaya, whilst the species stands more or less isolated 
in the Himalayan region, then we may appropriately call the species a Malayan element, 
notwithstanding its extension into the Himalayan region. We are in a similar position 
in many other cases, as will be seen from a glance at the tables, where, for instance, a 
number of species or representative species are indicated for Japan and temperate China, 
although I have no distinctly Japanese elements to deal with. The truth is that all these 
elements which are indicated for Japan are foreign to the Japanese flora, or so widely 
distributed that they are not specifically Japanese. However circumstantial and subject 
to differences of opinion in detail this way of dealing with the geographical affinities 
02 
