THE ALMACIGA TREE: AGATHIS ALBA (LAM.) 



By F. W. Foxworthy. 



[From the botanical section of the Biological Laboratory, Bureau of Science, 



Manila, P. I.) 



The almaciga tree, Agathis alba (Lam.), was first described at length 

 by Bumphius 1 under the name of Dammara alba which is merely the 

 Latin form of the Malay common name "Dammar puti." In 178G 

 Lamarck 2 gave a review of Bumphius's work, using the name Dammara 

 alba. In 1803, Lambert 3 figured and described as Pinus dammara 

 specimens of the same tree from Amboina. In 1824 he adopted the 

 name Dammara orientalis. In 1807, Salisbury 4 proposed the name 

 Agathis in place of Dammara, calling his plant Agathis loranthifolia. 

 Other names which have been given to it are Abies dammara Poiret, 5 

 Agathis dammara Eich., G and Dammara rumphvi Presl. 7 



Agathis is one of the nomina conservanda of the Vienna Botanical 

 Congress of 1905. The name of this species, therefore, is Agathis alba 

 (Lam.). This combination seems to have been used, since E. C. Jeffrey, 

 in an article on "The Wound Beactions of B rachyphyli 'um," s uses the 

 name Agathis alba without comment. 



Warburg D maintains that this species is an aggregate form and he 

 proposes to separate the following: 



A. dammara (Lamb.) Bich., the South Moluccas. 



A. labillardieri Warb., Amboina (?) or Waigu (?). 



A. regia Warb., the Moluccas, Batjan and the small island of Pulo 

 Dekat. 



A. macrostachys Warb., Java and Sumatra. 



1 Herbarium Amboinense (1741), 2, 174, pi. 57. 



2 Encyclopedie (1786). 2, 259. 



"A Description of the Genus Pinus (1803), 1, pi. 38. 



4 Trans. Linn. Soc. (1807), 8, 311. 



5 Encyclopedie. Supplement (1817), 5, 35. 



8 Commentatio botanica de Coniferis et Cycadeis (1826) 

 7 Epimeli£e Botanicse (1851), 236. 

 'Ann. Bot. (1906), 20, 387. 

 'Monsunia (1900), 1, 182-185. 



83, t. 19. 



173 



