BOTANIZING WITH THE OKINAWANS — WALKER 361 



Every published scientific flora or enumeration of the plants of an 

 area should be based on a collection of plant specimens. These docu- 

 ment and support the publication and are referred to when questions 

 arise concerning the validity of the published record. These Okina- 

 wan authors had been studying the plants of Okinawa and the other 

 Ryukyu islands for many years and had collected numerous specimens. 

 Although they had never had an opportunity for academic botanical 

 training, they knew their plants well. They had corresponded with 

 Japanese botanists and guided them when they came to Okinawa to 

 collect, even as they guided me in 1951, and had learned much from 

 them. For over 25 years Sonohara had been building up a herbarium 

 on which he hoped to base his projected Flora of Okinawa. But, like 

 many other Okinawan treasures, it was a war casualty, burned during 

 the invasion in 1945. He had sent specimens to Japan for study by 

 specialists and for deposit in Japanese herbaria, but these were un- 

 available for reference in this task of writing a flora in 1945-46. Thus, 

 except for their memories and a few far-from-adequate Japanese 

 botanical books which they had been able to save, they had nothing to 

 work with, a situation that would have stopped less determined and 

 ardent botanists. They even lacked paper on which to write, but 

 Tawada's friend, the Shuri city postmaster, fortunately had a usable 

 supply and girl assistants to rule it by hand as needed. Thus they 

 persevered, and in spite of these handicaps, finally, after several 

 months, prepared in English, a language foreign to them, a systematic 

 enumeration of over 2,500 species of Okinawan plants. It gave their 

 scientific, Japanese, and Okinawan names in Eomanji, with notes on 

 their distribution, habitats, and uses. Space was left for someone else 

 to insert the English names of those few, mostly introductions, that 

 had such designations. To them this work was the fulfillment of a 

 dream, and naturally they hoped it would be published. Then, be- 

 hold, Sonohara's malaria left him ; and the manuscript was turned over 

 to the Americans, who received it with eagerness and gratitude. 



In spite of its lack of documentation and its recognized short- 

 comings, this manuscript supplied a need. With it the servicemen 

 could find names for their collections, at least tentative ones that 

 could be verified later by more critical study elsewhere. Previously 

 there was nothing ; now there was at least a guide. It was, however, 

 only one manuscript for the use of many scattered naturalists, and 

 its duplication was clearly needed. Accordingly, Dr. Arthur Galston, 

 then agricultural officer with the occupying forces and now associate 

 professor of biology in the California Institute of Technology, brought 

 the manuscript with him when he returned to the States and sought 

 its publication. 



. Because of my desire to promote botanical collecting, especially 

 by our servicemen in all parts of the world, so as to enlarge the col- 



