ME. EY ON PLAISTS 



the command of Lieutenant (n.nv Captain) A. Van de Water, and numbered in all 

 226 persons. A landing was made on the Utakwa River on September 18, 1912, and 

 the expedition left the country on April 3, 1913. 



An account of the expedition has been published in the ' Geographical Journal ' 

 (vol. xliii. 1914, pp. 218-208), from which I have taken some information, and Mr. Kloss 

 has added to the present pajier a short account of the track followed. The collections 

 made by him, and brought down under great diflTiculties by the expedition, are the most 

 extensive and important ones ever brought to this country from New Guinea. 



Despite tlie large botanical collections made in Dutch and German New Guinea, 

 and described by Dutch and German botanists, the number of new species and genera 

 in proportion to the number of specimens collected is very large, there being about 

 500 new species and 8 new genera. This illustrates the extraordinary richness of the 

 Papuan flora. The flora of British New Guinea has been more neglected than that 

 of Dutch and German New Guinea; except for Forbes's collections on the Sogeri 

 Mountains, wliich have not yet been fully worked out, and a small lot obtained liy 

 Macgregor and Giuliauetti, no collecting of importance has been done there. 



In working out this great collection I was assisted by Mr. E. G. Baker, who identified 

 and descril)ed the LeguminosiB and Melastomacese, Mr. Spencer le Marchaut Moore 

 and Mr. Wernhatn, who took charge of tlie Gamopetalae except the Utricularias, which 

 I undertook myself. Mr. C. H. Wright has determined the Cellular Cryptogams, and 

 Mr. Massee the Fungi, mostly parasitic on the dried flowering plants. I have also 

 to thank Fleet-Surgeon INIatthew for assistance and advice as to the Ferns, and 

 Mr. Sprague and others of the Kew Staff for advice on various critical species. The 

 field-notes as to colour were made by Mr. Kloss on the tickets. There being no locality- 

 names known r.L the spots where the plants were collected, they are localised by the 

 ^ 1 nu'-iiber and altitude. Where such a locality is given as IX to XI, it signifies 

 the plant was collected en route between these two points. 



Itinerary by C. B. Kloss, F.R.G.S. 



Carstensz Peak, 15,961 ft. high and situated in 4° 5' 50" N. and 137° 12' 50" E., is some- 

 what west of north of, and about 62| miles distant from, the mouth of the Utakwa River, 

 Avhere the expedition entered New Guinea. It is slightly the highest of several snowy 

 summits which occur along the great mountain range that runs, speaking very broadly, 

 east and west across this portion of the island, and has by far a larger area of snow than 

 any other peak in the chain, while Mt. Idenburg, another snow summit, lies only some 

 ten miles to the westward ; so that the area of high land is greater in this locality than 

 in any other part of New Guinea, which possesses the only equatorial snow-mountains 

 between Africa and America. 



Ranges of high mountains, with peaks rising to 11,400 ft., run more or less parallel 

 to the Main Chain and 10-12 miles distant, while the foothills begin to rise from 

 the coastal plain about 20-30 miles to the south of it. 



