Band 129. Nr. 20. XXXVI. Jahrgang. IL Bd. Nr. 20. 



Botanisclies Centralblatt 



Referirendes Organ 



der 



Association Internationale des Botanistes 

 für das Gesamtgebiet der Botanik. 



Herausgegeben unter der Leitung 



des Präsidenten: des Vice- Präsidenten : des Secretärs: 



Dr. D. H. Scott. Prof. Dr. Wm. Trelease. Dr. J. P. Lotsy. 



und der Redactions-Comtn issions- Mitglieder : 



Prof. Dr. Wm. Treleasa, Dr. C. Bonaventura, A. D. Cotton, 



Prof. Dr. C. Wehmer und Dr. C. H, Ostenfeld. 



von zahlreichen Specialredacteuren in den verschiedenen Ländern. 



Dr. J. P. Lotsy, Chefredacteur. 



No. 46. 



Abonnement für das halbe Jahr 15 Mark 

 durch alle Buchhandlungen und Postanstalten. 



1915. 



Alle für die Redaction bestimmten Sendungen sind zu richten an: 

 kedaction des Botanischen Centralblattes, Haarlem (Holland), Spaarne 17. 



Sirks, M. J., Indisch natuuronderzoek. Een beknopte 

 geschiedenis van de beoefening der natuurweten- 

 schappen in de Nederlandsche kolonien. (Diss. Utrecht 

 en Meded. Kol. Inst. Amsterdam. VI. Afd. Handelsmuseum 2. 

 XII, 303 pp. 23 pl. 1915.) 



Scientific researches about nature, flora and fauna and their 

 products in the Dutch Indies have not been made before the 

 beginning of the seventeenth Century; the work done in earlier 

 times, only some astronomical observations by marine travellers 

 cannot be called upon as nature-study for its own sake. The history 

 of these researches is divided into two parts, essentially different 

 from each other: the one, the period before 1850, being the time of 

 general nature-study, in which it was possible that one and the 

 same naturalist studied nature as a whole, being occupied by resear- 

 ches on animals and plants, geology and chemistry etc.; the other 

 time, afterwards. the time of specialization, of increased sciences, 

 by which the naturalist was obliged to restrain his work to special 

 studies on one of these sciences or one of the groups of animals 

 or plants. 



Therefore the present book, giving a brief history of the deve- 

 lopment of scientific researches in the Dutch Indies, exists of 

 two parts, one containing chapter I — V, treating the general nature- 

 study before 1850 and the other, chapter VI to XIII, giving the 

 history of each science afterwards. Botanj^ has always played the 

 principal röle in this history, from the beginning onwards to the 

 present time. 



The Contents of the book cannot be summarized in a brief 

 review; only the principal features may be mentioned here. 



Botan. Centralblatt. Band 129. 1915. 33 



