346 PLANTS IN USE BY THE NATIVES OF NEW GUINEA, 

 PAPERS READ. 



LIST OF PLANTS IN USE BY THE NATIVES OF THE 

 MACLAY-COAST, NEW GUINEA. 



By N. de Miklouho-Maclay. 



With some Botanical remarks by Baron Ferd. von Mueller, 



Revising my notes of the Ethnology of the Maclay-Coast, I 

 made a list of plants, the parts of which (roots, stem, bark, leaves, 

 flowers or fruits) ai-e used by the natives as articles of food, as 

 stimulants, or other purposes. 



Some of these plants are cultivated by the natives in their 

 plantations, some are gathered at certain times in the forests. The 

 planting of the food plants is so ai-ranged, that the natives are 

 provided the whole year round with some special kind of food. 

 The season of ripening of the principal food plants (taro, yams, 

 sweet potatoes, &c.), is however not the same in different villages, 

 but varies according to their different position, on the coast or in 

 the hills. The time of collecting the products of cultivated plants 

 mentioned in this paper refers to the coast villages, principally 

 near to my two residences (Garagassi in 1871-72 and Bongu in 

 1876-77), near the Port Constantine. 



On my return from New Guinea in 1873, I was fortunate 

 enough to see in Java Dr. R. H. C. C. Scheffer, Director of the 

 Botanical Garden of Buitenzorg, and of meeting Dr. O. Beccari 

 in Singapoi-e in 1878. I did not neglect during these interviews 

 to ascertain, with their help, the systematic names of some 

 plants, about which I was doubtful, and in which cases I had 

 brought with me from New Guinea the fruits, or leaves and 

 flowers. 



