A CATALOGUE OF THE FLOWERING PLANTS AND FERNS, &C. 69 



acuminata^ RJiodoniyftus touientosa, Melastoma inalaba- 

 tJirica; and in lesser numbers Glochidinni obsciirnm, Crypte- 

 ronia pubescens, Motinda ti?ictoria. and a few otijers. Where 

 there were no trees the "lalang" had taken absolute posses- 

 sion. 



The mean temperature of the Island is a little above 80 F., 

 with a range of 14°-! 5°, and the average rainfall for the past 

 five years 120 inches, spread more or less over the whole year, 

 though most falls during the latter half. 



There is no well-defined flowering season ; some things can 

 be collected at almost any time, while others appear to flower 

 only at intervals of several years. During the past seven 

 years there has been but one really good flowering season, 

 which I attribute to the unusually long drought of the preced- 

 ing period. 



Several large collections of plants have, at various times, 

 been made in Penang, the most important being those of 

 Wallich, Maingay, Porter and Phillips. A great many 

 of the plants found by these, and other of the earlier collectors, 

 I have been able to identify and hope yet to add largely to the 

 number, but owing to the increased area under cultivation 

 since their time, and the complete change that follows clearing, 

 as already pointed out, it is probable that some of the plants 

 recorded by them will not be again collected on the Island. 



So far as I am aware no separate catalogue of plants 

 collected in Penang has yet been published, and thus it is 

 hoped that the present, though incomplete, may be of use to 

 those interested in the botany and forestry of the region until 

 material is available for a better. 



Not having access to many books in which scattered records 

 of Penang plants occur, I have included (in cases where I have 

 not myself collected a specimen or seen the plant growing 

 wild) only those for which Penang is given as a locality in the 

 Flora of British India, Annals of the Royal Botanic Gardens 

 Calcutta, and Materials for a Flora of the Malayan Peninsula, so 

 far as these works are published ; Hooker's Synopsis Filicum, 

 and Beddome's Ferns of British India. No doubt many plants, 

 whose distribution is so general throughout the Malayan 



