NOTES ON THE FLORA OF SUMATRA 



By E, D. Merrill 



(From the Botanical Section of the Biological Laboratory, Bureau of 



Science, Manila) 



In the year 1860-61 Miquel ^ published a general summary 

 of the Sumatran flora, enumerating all the species of Spermato- 

 phyta then known from the island and the neighboring smaller 

 ones, especially Bangka. This work was based primarily on the 

 collections of Teysmann, Diepenhorst, Horsfield, Korthals, Jung- 

 huhn, Zollinger, and Amman, and includes 2,642 species, of 

 which about 700 were described by Miquel as new. Since Mi- 

 quel's publication was issued, comparatively little has been pub- 

 lished on the Sumatran flora as such. Some large collections 

 of plants have been made, notably that by Beccari, but with the 

 exception of the recent collections of Robinson and Kloss, those 

 made by other botanists since Miquel's time have not been 

 thoroughly studied. 



In 1884 Van Hasselt and Boerlage ^ published a small contri- 

 bution to our knowledge of the Sumatran flora, this being based 

 on the relatively unimportant botanical collections made by the 

 Veth expedition in connection with its anthropological and zoo- 

 logical investigations. In this work about 170 species are enu- 

 merated, a large number of them cellular cryptogams. Of the 

 spermatophytes but four are described as new, most of the 

 others enumerated having already been recorded from Sumatra. 



The Sumatran collections made by Dr. S. H. Koorders in 

 1890 have been enumerated by Mrs. Koorders,^ these totaling 

 not more than 450 species in all groups, a considerable number 

 of which have been determined only to the genus, and some 

 only to the family. Of these species collected by Doctor Koorders 



* Miquel, A. F. W., Florae Indiae Batavae. Supplementum I. Prodro- 

 mus Florae Sumatranae (1860-61) XX + 1-656, t. 1-i. German edition, 

 Sumatra, seine Pflanzenwelt und deren Erzeugnisse (1862) XXIV +1-656, 

 t. 1-Jf. 



*Van Hasselt, A. L. and Boerlage, J. G., Bijdragen tot de kennis der 

 flora van Midden-Sumatra, in Veth, P. J. Midden-Sumatra 4 part 2^ 

 (1884) 1-49, t. 1-8. 



• Koorders-Schumacher, A., Syst. Verzeich. Herb. Koord. 2 (1910-11) 

 1-62. 



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