13 



and the publications in which the original descriptions and 

 Bornean records may be found, as well as giving the other 

 historical data for each species in relation to the Bornean 

 references. 



The general botanical publications of greatest value in the 

 identification for Bornean material are King & Gamble's 

 Materials for Flora of the Malayan Peninsula; Koorders's 

 Exkursionsflora von Java; and my own Flora of Manila. The 

 latter publication will prove to be of distinct value for the 

 identification of those species characteristic of the settled areas 

 at low altitudes in the vicinity of towns and settlements, but 

 will be of no service as a guide to the identity of species 

 characteristic of the forested regions. It is, in general, a text 

 that is applicable to the vegetation of the settled areas 

 throughout the Indo-Malayan and Polynesian regions, although 

 it is based wholly on those species that grow either naturally or 

 cultivated in the immediate vicinity of Manila. It is a well known 

 fact that most of the species that grow in the settled areas in 

 one part of Malaya are identical with those found in other 

 parts of the entire region. A very high percentage of all such 

 species are weeds and weed-like plants and cultivated and 

 semi-cultivated species that have accidentally or purposely been 

 transmitted from one region to another by man, and a very 

 high percentage of them are pantropic; i.e., are to be found in 

 m.ost or all tropical countries. 



It may be argued by some that a bibliographic list like the 

 present one serves no especially valuable purpose. It is true 

 that it will be of comparatively little value to amateur botanists, 

 or to those professional botanists who do not have a wide 

 knowledge of taxonomy, and access to large botanical libraries 

 and to herbaria rich in Indo-Malayan collections. However, no 

 summary of the Bornean flora has been prepared, and the 

 professional botanist who concerns himself with a study of 

 Bornean material must or should spend many weeks in indexing 

 Bornean references in the very widely scattered taxonomic 

 literature before he is in a position to determine those species 

 that have already been described from or credited to Borneo. 

 The very fact that no compilation of the Bornean flora, not even 

 a simple list, exists is sufficient argument to support the 

 preparation and publication of the present enumeration. It 

 is distinctly worth while to pause from time to time in our 

 apparently never-ending task of working out and describing 

 new species from little-known parts of the World and to 

 summarize and place in such form the summarized results that 

 they will be available to all who are concerned or interested in 

 the various problems involved. This is what I have attempted to 

 •do in the preparation of the present work by summarizing in 



