INTRODUCTION 



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ized by the early authors. From a botanical standpoint it 

 owes its great importance almost wholly to the preparation and 

 publication of Rumphius's Herbarium Amboinense. (See Plates 

 I and II.) 



During the early colonial period Amboina was of great com- 

 mercial importance on account of the dominance of the spice 

 trade, of which it was the center for a long time. It was first 

 visited by the Portuguese in 1511, who established a factory 

 there in 1521. The Portuguese were dispossessed by the Dutch 

 in 1609, who have since retained control of the island except 

 for the periods 1796-1802 and 1810-1814, when it was occupied 

 by the British, being finally restored to the Dutch Government 

 in 1814. The island is only 51 kilometers long and has an area 

 of approximately 950 square kilometers. Salahoetoe, the highest 

 mountain on the island, attains an altitude of 1,027 meters. 



The flora of Amboina is typically Malayan, although a few 

 Australian types are present as in other parts of the Malayan 

 region. Practically all of the species found along the seacoast 

 are of general distribution from India to Malaya and Polynesia, 

 Likewise most of the species found in the settled areas at low 

 and medium altitudes, weeds of cultivation, and the generally 

 cultivated economic and ornamental plants are the same as those 

 usually found throughout Malaya, very many of which are now 

 distributed in all tropical regions. The primeval forest to a 

 large extent has been destroyed at low and medium altitudes, 

 at least in those regions best adapted to agricultural pursuits, and 

 has been replaced over large areas by cultivated or semicultivated 

 plants, second-growth forests, thickets, and open grasslands 

 characterized by the dominance of the cogon or lalang grass 

 (Imperata) . In the interior on the slopes of the higher moun- 

 tains, such as Salahoetoe, some forest still persists. 



The island presents a considerable endemic element, but a 

 thorough botanical exploration of the Moluccas will doubtless 

 show that most of the species now known only from Amboina 

 inhabit also the neighboring islands, such as Ceram, Buru, 

 Boeton, Celebes, Gilolo, western New Guinea, and the numerous 

 smaller islands of the Moluccas. From the standpoint of en- 

 demic species most of the neighboring islands are probably of 

 much greater interest than is Amboina, but from the standpoint 

 of the history of Malayan botany, no part of the Moluccas can 

 be compared with it. 



No description of the vegetation of Amboina is here attempted, 

 as I have not personally visited the island, and Doctor Robinson 



