48 THE WORLD OF LIFE 



pines. It is probably at its maximum in Borneo, as 

 Professor Beccari gives it as the twelfth in the sequence 

 of orders as regards number of species: (l) Rubiaceae ; (2) 

 Orchidaceae, 200 species ; (3) Euphorbiaceae ; (4) Legu- 

 minosae ; (5) Anonaceae ; (6) Melastomaceae ; (7) Palmae, 

 130 species ; (8) Urticaceae ; (9) Myrtaceae ; (10) Araceae ; 

 (11) Guttiferae ; (12) Dipterocarpeae, 60 species. This list, 

 it must be remembered, refers to the " primeval forests " 

 alone, taking no account of the widespread tropical flora 

 found in old clearings and in the vicinity of towns and 

 villages. 



Before leaving the Asiatic continent I must say a few 

 words as to the figures given in the table for the plants of 

 Indo-China, comprising the whole territory between Burma 

 and China, which has been at least as well explored by 

 French botanists as have Burma and the Malay Peninsula 

 by ourselves. Having been unable to obtain any statistical 

 information on this area from English botanists, I applied 

 to M. Gagnepain, of the botanical department of the Natural 

 History Museum of Paris, who has kindly furnished me with 

 the following facts. They have at the Museum very large 

 collections of plants from all parts of this territory, collected 

 from 1862 onwards, but great numbers of the species are 

 still undescribed. Only small portions of the flora have 

 been actually described in works still in process of publica- 

 tion ; but, from his knowledge of this extensive herbarium, 

 he believes that the flora of Indo-China, as actually collected, 

 comprises about 7000 species. 



Flora of the Malay Islands 



The great archipelago (usually termed the Malayan, or ! 

 " Malaisia "), which extends from Sumatra to New Guinea, 

 a distance of nearly 4000 miles, and from the Philippines 

 to Timor, more than 1000 miles, comprises an actual 

 land area of 1,175,000 square miles, which is fully equal to 

 that of all tropical Asia, even if we include the lower slopes 

 of the Eastern Himalayas. This great land-area has the 

 advantage over the continent of being mainly situated within 

 ten degrees on each side of the equator, and having all its 

 coasts bathed and interpenetrated by the heated waters of 



