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conditions demanded by modern agriculture, and they cannot 

 exist in the second growth forests, grass lands, and bamboo 

 thickets that rapidly encroach on cleared areas that are 

 abandoned. Perhaps without realizing the fact we are witness- 

 ing in our own generation the rapid extermination of some of 

 the noblest types of tropical vegetation and all botanists should 

 be interested in preserving at least herbarium records while 

 such records are to be secured. The present century will 

 certainly witness an enormous extension of the agricultural 

 areas in Malaya, for modern science has rendered our " conquest 

 of the tropics " a comparatively simple matter; and any general 

 extension of agricultural areas will to a large degree be at the 

 expense of regions now covered with forests of one type or 

 another. 



It is true that many areas unsuitable for agricultural 

 pursuits will continue to support various types of primeval 

 vegetation, but the vast primary forests situated on level alluvial 

 lands are with equal certainty doomed to an early destruction. 

 In Java, for example, it is doubtless true that species once 

 common have become extinct or at least very rare within the 

 past century by the destruction of primary forests over large 

 areas. W-'hile definite proofs of such a contention might be very 

 difficult or impossible to compile, yet I believe that it must be 

 admitted by all experienced observers that sometime in the past 

 Java was largely covered with a primary forest of one type or 

 another; of this only slight traces now exist below an altitude 

 of about 4,000 feet. In Java the pressure of the population has 

 been the chief agent in the restriction, or in most parts of the 

 island, the destruction of the primary forest, and it is only a 

 question of tim.e when the same agent v/ill exercise its full force 

 in the now thinly populated larger areas such as the Malay 

 Peninsula, Sumatra, and Borneo. It is becoming more and more 

 imperative that the virgin forests of the Malay Peninsula, 

 Sumatra, Borneo, and other parts of Malaya be botanically 

 explored, not only because we need the data such collections 

 will yield to help us solve the numerous problems of phytogeo- 

 graphy and taxonomy, but also because numerous species that 

 can now be secured without any "great difficulty, will in the 

 course of time become exceedingly rare, very local, or in some 

 cases entirely extinct. 



My appreciation of these conditions is largely based on my 

 own experiences and observations in the Philippines during 

 sixteen year's residence and exploration of the group, and the 

 Philippine conditions are certainly not radically different from 

 those in other parts of Malaya. It cannot be too strongly urged 

 on those in authority, that provision should be made for an 

 intensive botanical exploration of the accessible parts of Malaya, 



