XIV INTRODUCTION. 



Kampong, campong . . . Village 



Padang ..... Field, flat place 



Rimbah ..... Forest 



Hutan ..... Woods 



Belukar ..... Secondary jungle 



Native Names and Uses. — Where they have been obtained, the 

 Malay names of plants as used in the peninsula have been given, 

 as these are often useful to local botanists, for many of them are 

 thoroughly well known to all Malays and strictly used for definite 

 plants. To every name as given here the affix Poko (tree or shrub) 

 or Akar (climber) is to be added, according to the habit of the plants. 

 Grasses and small herbaceous plants are usually known as Rumpnt. 



Pakis signifies a fern, and is supposed to be a variant of Pakti, 

 also used for ferns, which literally means a nail, and refers to the 

 circinate vernation of a fern, and as a cycad has a similar vernation 

 it is also called Pakis. Lumui (moss) is sometimes applied to moss- 

 like plants, as the aquatic Uiricularias. Sakat signifies an epiphyte, 

 but the Javanese word Angrek is now generally used for epiphytic 

 orchids. Buah (fruit), Daun (leaf), Bunga (flower), Akar (root as 

 well as climber), are commonly used when referring to these parts 

 of a plant. The special uses of the plants described are added when 

 of interest, but fuller accounts will be found in papers on the timbers, 

 the fruits, poisons and materia medica of the Malays, published in 

 the Straits Agricultural Bulletin and other local works. 



Botanists and Plant Collectors in the Malay Peninsula.— 1 have 

 given the names of the collectors of various species, partly on 

 account of the interest that attaches to the older ones, and partly 

 because the types of species are so frequently based on specimens 

 collected in this country by certain collectors. Wliere no collector's 

 name is given, it is to be understood that the plant was collected by 

 the author. 



The earliest voyagers to mention the plants of Malacca are 

 Linschoten (" Voyages to the East Indies," 1583) and Garcia da 

 Orta (" Historia Aromatum," 1593), who mention in these works 

 a number of useful plants, chiefly fruits and spices that they met 

 with in their travels. 



The first regular collector of herbarium specimens was William 

 Roxburgh, jun., son of the well-known W. Roxburgh; he collected 

 plants in Penang in 1802. 



Nathaniel Wallich, Superintendent of the Calcutta Botanic 

 Gardens, visited Singapore and Penang in 1822, and made extensive 

 collections there which were largely distributed and the study-set 

 was incorporated in the Indian collections belonging to the Hon. 

 East India Company. A lithographed catalogue (quoted Wall. 

 Cat.) of these plants was published, and the study-set is now in the 

 Kew Herbarium. He was assisted in this collection by several 

 botanists, including W. Jack and G. Porter. 



