67 



and on thi^ man rial is based the published results of these careful 

 investigations, entitled "Bijdragen tot de kennis der BooiuHoorten van 

 Java," by Drs. Koordere and Valeton. These "Bijdragen" are issued in 

 the Garden publication entitled "Mededeelingen uit's Ijands Planten- 

 tuin," the first of these works on the fort^st flora of Java being published 

 in 1896. Since that date seven numbers of the "Bijdragen" have been 

 issued, of from two hundred to four hundred and seventy .pages each, 

 and at present two or three additional volumes are in the hands of the 

 printer. In these "Bijdragen" the forest flora of Java is treated by fam- 

 ilies, with analytical keys to the genera. They contain careful generic 

 and specific descriptions in both Latin and Dutch, with rather full cita- 

 tions and synonymy, followed by a long discussion of each species in the 

 Dutch language, giving the detailed geographical distribution ; the abund- 

 ance or scarcity of the species in Java; its general distribution outside 

 of Java; habitat ; peculiarities of the plant ; time of flowering and fruit- 

 ing ; time of falling of the leaves, if a deciduous tree ; local names ; eco- 

 nomic uses, etc. These "Bijdragen" constitute one of the most careful 

 and complete publications in any language on the forest flora of a tropical 

 country, and much of the data on which this most excellent publication 

 was based could have been secured in no other way than by the careful 

 preliminary work on the type vegetative areas carried out by Dr. 

 Koorders. 



After a preliminary survey of the field. Dr. Koorders found it quite 

 impossible for any one man to make a complete study of all the forest re- 

 gions of the Island, and accordingly, after much study on the subject, he 

 worked out in detail the plan outlined below. 



The principle of the scheme adopted was to select certain areas repre- 

 senting vegetative conditions in the various parts of the Island, typical 

 both from a systematic and ecological standpoint; to number carefully 

 the different species found in each one of the type areas, and to prepare 

 full notes on each species, giving size, native names, economic uses, its 

 distribution within the selected area, whether common or rare, epiphytic 

 or parasytic, the character of the soil, etc., together with complete botan- 

 ical specimens. When the flora of several of these type areas had been 

 determined by Dr. Koorders, a liurried botanical survey was made in the 

 country between two or more of the selected areas, to test whether or not 

 the selected areas represented the typical forest flora of the region. It is 

 needless to state that these areas were selected with great care, localities 

 being chosen sometimes because they represented a particular type of for- 

 est, young jungle, old jungle, open lands with scattered forest vegetation, 

 swamp forests, "djati" (teak) forests, etc., and sometimes because of cer- 

 tain geographical features. 



In the many "test" botanical surveys that have been made in the 

 country between these selected type areas, the wisdom of the original se- 



