22 



Other typically Australian genera of which species have been 

 found in Borneo, but which are also of general distribution in 

 Malaya are Casuarina, Helicia, Baeckea, Leptospermum, 

 Melaleuca (probably introduced in Borneo), Tristania, Styphelia, 

 Halorhagis, perhaps Dianella, and possibly representatives of 

 other genera such as Dipodium. It is not always clear whether 

 such types as these are really of Australian origin, or whether 

 they originated in the Indo-Malayan region and migrated to 

 Australia. Judged however from the predominence of other 

 representatives of these and their allied genera in Australia 

 they may with a fair degree of certainty be classed as Australian 

 types. 



Striking Australian types found at higher altitudes include 

 Ranunculus lowii Stapf, Drimys piperita Hook, f., Didiscus sanicu- 

 laefolius (Stapf) Merr., Coprosma crassicaulis Stapf, C. hookeri 

 Stapf, Nertera depressa Banks, Lagenophora gibbsiae Merr., 

 Gaultheria borneensis Stapf, Euphrasia borneensis Stapf, Drupetes 

 ericoides Hook, f., Patersonia lowii Stapf, P. borneensis Stapf, 

 Centrolepis kinabaluensis Gibbs, Scirpus inundatus Spreng., 

 Schoenus kinabaluensis Stapf, 5. melanostachyus R. Br., and 

 Blechnum fraseri Luerss. Of these the genera Drimys, Didiscus, 

 Drapetes, Patersonia, Schoenus and Centrolepis are typically 

 Australian, but representatives of all except Drapetes have been 

 found in the Philippines; they are not otherwise known from 

 Sunda Islands and the Malay Peninsula but some of them are 

 known from Celebes and from New Guinea, a distribution 

 wholly to be expected of all of them. 



From a systematic standpoint, with the exception of a few 

 comparatively small areas, the flora of no part of the immense 

 Malayan region can be considered as thoroughly known or even 

 as well known. Among the larger islands in Malaya proper 

 Java is the only one that has been intensively explored from a 

 botanical standpoint, and the flora of Java is by no means 

 thoroughly known although botanical exploration of this island 

 has extended over a period of more than one hundred and fifty 

 years, and an enormous amount of work has been done on its 

 flora within the past century. Among the smaller islands 

 probably Penang and Singapore are the only ones that we can 

 consider to be well explored, and on both of these intensive 

 botanical exploration has been intermittently carried on for 

 over one hundred years; in Singapore, at least, the original 

 vegetation has now been largely exterminated. Parts of the 

 Malay Peninsula have been well explored, but large areas have 

 scarcely been visited by any botanist or collector, and while 

 the flora of the Malay Peninsula is better known than is that 

 of any other considerable area in Malaya, other than Java, 

 future exploration of the more inaccessible parts of the Penin- 



