12 



RUMPHIUS'S HERBARIUM AMBOINENSE 



in Amboina are not described in the Herbarium Amboinense, 

 for Robinson's collection alone presents more than 350 species 

 of ferns and flowering plants not considered by Rumphius.* 

 Some of these have undoubtedly been introduced into Amboina 

 since Rumphius's time, but very many of them are indigenous 

 and were certainly as common there in the seventeenth century 

 as they are to-day. Some of the species not appearing in the 

 Herbarium Amboinense are small and might have been ignored 

 as being of slight importance ; but others are large trees, shrubs, 

 or vines, often with rather showy flowers, and in many cases 

 they are abundant. Doctor Robinson's final conclusions as to 

 the methods used by Rumphius in selecting the species described 

 are expressed in a letter written early in November, 1913, 

 as follows : 



I think more and more that the Herbarium Amboinense was not at all 

 a complete flora of Amboina as Rumphius found it and that he selected 

 on four bases: Economic plants and others that resembled them; plants 

 that were very different from those he had seen in Europe; plants that 

 greatly resembled those of Europe; plants regarding which there was 

 some superstition or legend. A fifth heading might be made for the very 

 showy plants, but I think that this really belongs under the second group. 



The Herbarium Amboinense is a classical work on the Malayan 

 flora, and one that is absolutely essential to the systematist 

 to-day. This is not because of any system of classification pro- 

 posed, for the work follows no definite system, nor on account of 

 priority of its names, as the work is pre-Linnean, and binomial 

 names appearing in the text are merely accidental. The great 

 importance of the work is due to the fact that later authors have 

 made the Rumphian descriptions and figures the actual "types" 

 of many binomials. As an original source the Herbarium Am- 

 boinense stands preeminent among all the early publications on 

 Malayan botany. In more than 800 original "publications" of 

 species of plants under the binomial system from 1753 to 

 1908 the Rumphian names or figures, or both, are quoted as 

 synonyms, and in about 350 cases the proposed binomials are 

 based wholly on data given by Rumphius. In no case is a 

 species typified by Rumphian figures and descriptions intelligible 

 without reference to the Herbarium Amboinense. These nu- 

 merous species not represented by any "type" specimens must, of 

 course, be interpreted primarily by the data given by Rumphius, 

 supplemented by a study of botanical specimens from the same 



* Merrill, E. D. Reliquiae Robinsonianae. Philip. Journ. Sci. 11 (1916) 

 Bot. 243-319. 



