THE SOUTH-EASTERN MOLUCCAS. 



INTRODUCTORY NOTES. 



This Report deals with all those islands lying between North- West Australia and South- 

 West New Guinea, and included within 126° and ISO 3 E. longitude, and within 5° and 

 9° S. latitude, from which there are any collections of plants in the Kew Herbarium. 

 Thus limited, the better known islands of Ceram, Amboina, and Bum are excluded ; 

 and Wetter is the most westerly, and the Arrou group the most easterly, of those under 

 consideration. In order to enhance the interest of this Report, some recent collections from 

 the same region at Kew, made by Mr H. 0. Forbes and Mr Riedel, have been incor- 

 porated with the Challenger collections ; yet even with this addition, the whole is a mere 

 fragment of the flora, and almost entirely restricted to the littoral element. Nevertheless, 

 as a contribution to the geographical distribution of plants inhabiting the coasts of tropical 

 seas, this Report possesses, perhaps, as much interest as any one of the botanical series. 

 The Challenger Expedition visited the Arrou and Ki groups, but the botanical collections 

 made by Mr Moseley and other officers reached this country in such a rotten, broken con- 

 dition that, although the common plants were recognisable, a large proportion of the species 

 are indeterminable, or, if clearly distinguishable from all other known species, the speci- 

 mens are too imperfect for description. So far as the collections examined are concerned, 

 there is nothino- in them indicating an endemic generic element in the flora of the South- 

 eastern Moluccas, for all the apparently undescribed species belong to genera of the Asiatic, 

 Australian, or Polynesian regions ; yet from Mr Moseley's description of the vegetation of 

 the Arrou and Ki groups, reproduced below, it must be rich and diversified, and there is 

 little doubt that a thorough exploration of the forests of the interior of the islands would 

 yield a rich harvest. Wallace, too, in his Malay Archipelago, frequently alludes to the 

 variety and luxuriance of the vegetation of the Arrou and Ki groups, and one passage con- 

 cerning the forests of Arrou is specially interesting. He says (vol. ii. p. 203) : — " As I 

 became familiar with the forest scenery of the island, I perceived it to possess some 

 characteristic features that distinguished it from that of Borneo and Malacca, while, what 

 is very singular and interesting, it recalled to my mind half-forgotten impressions of the 

 forests of Equatorial America. For example, the palms were much more abundant than 

 I had generally found them in the East, more generally mingled with the other vegetation, 

 more varied in form and aspect, and presenting some of those lofty and majestic smooth- 



