IV 



TROPICAL FLORAS 75 



is numbered, and paths made and kept in order, so that they 

 can be easily visited, and the flowers or fruit gathered for the 

 herbarium. Dr. Koorders has now obtained specimens of 

 about 1200 trees indigenous to Java, while 3500 specimens 

 have been numbered in the reserves. This number is without 

 counting either shrubs or climbers. 



I give here a reproduction of a charming little photo- 

 graph taken in West Java more than fifty years ago by my 

 friend, the late Walter Woodbury, and I believe in the southern 

 country not very far from the island which Dr. Koorders 

 found so rich (Fig. 8). The intermingling of dwarf palms 

 and ferns, with the varied foliage of shrubs and herbaceous 

 plants, and the abundance of lianas hanging everywhere 

 from the trees overhead, give an impression of tropical 

 luxuriance beyond even that of the Malayan photographs 

 (pp. 46 and 47). 



The system of small forest reserves in tropical or other 

 imperfectly known countries seems to me to offer so many 

 advantages that the adoption of it in Java by the Dutch 

 botanists must, I think, be looked upon as an important 

 discovery. It has the great advantage of being at once 

 economical and effective ; it brings about the maximum of 

 scientific result with the minimum of cost, of time and of 

 labour. It has proved that the careful and systematic study 

 of very small areas is calculated to extend our knowledge of 

 the vast world of plant-life more than any other that has 

 hitherto been adopted. The plan is to have, in any exten- 

 sive country or island, a suitable number of what may be 

 termed " botanical reserves " (but which will also serve as 

 zoological reserves, especially for bird and insect life) ; these 

 to be of small size, say one square mile each, to be kept 

 absolutely in a state of nature, except the provision of 

 numerous paths giving access to at least one specimen of 

 every species of tree the reserve contains. Experience in 

 Java seems to show that one man, or two if necessary, can 

 keep the paths open, watch for the flowering and fruiting 

 of trees, gather and send specimens to the head of the 

 department, and also, I presume, serve as guide to any 

 botanical visitors to the reserve. But when the trees had 

 been all found, numbered, and named, the same super- 



