A CONTRIBUTION 
TO THE 
PHYTOGEOGRAPHY AND FLORA 
OF 
DUTCH N.W. NEW GUINEA. 
INTRODUCTION. 
1. HISTORICAL. 
TuE history of the navigation and exploration of New Guinea from the 
earliest times has been most exhaustively summarised by Dr. Wichmann in 
the two volumes of history included in “Nova Guinea.” The following 
account is, therefore, strictly limited to records of botanical collections and 
observations in N.W. New Guinea alone. 
From historical times the N.W. coast of Dutch New Guinea paid tribute 
to the Sultans of Tidor, and was subsequently included in the Residency of 
Ternate, which now administers the whole of the Sultan’s dominions. 
Ternate, the capital, has always been the centre of the N. New Guinea 
trade in Birds-of-Paradise, the “Passaros del Sol” of the old Portuguese 
navigators, who widely distributed these highly prized objects both east and 
west, Oriental potentates and Moorish sultans with their courtiers vying in 
the possession of such treasured symbols of royal power and magnificence, 
which adorned the headgear on ceremonious occasions. 
Subsequent to this the golden returns from the spice trade in the 
Moluccas, a monopoly most stringently held by the Dutch East India Co., 
attracted the attention of other European nations. In the search both for 
wild varieties of the precious trees and suitable areas for possible exploitation, 
B 
