PREFACE 



It was with considerable diffidence and great regret that I 

 assumed the task of interpreting the species described in the 

 Herbarium Amboinense, as it was at my suggestion that Doctor 

 Robinson undertook this task, in the prosecution of which he 

 met his untimely death. 



Doctor Robinson arrived in Amboina July 15, 1913, and 

 immediately commenced his field work, which was actively 

 prosecuted up to the time of his death. On the morning of 

 December 5, 1913, he departed from the town of Amboina, un- 

 accompanied, for a botanical excursion through the country south 

 of the town, passing through Amahoesoe, Eri, Silalei, Latoelahat, 

 and Aerlo. While on his return trip he was murdered by the 

 Boetonese residents of a small settlement between Aerlo and 

 Seri, about 15 kilometers from the town of Amboina. The crime 

 was wholly due to a local superstition, the ignorant natives 

 mistaking Doctor Robinson for the notorious potong kapala 

 (the decapitator) , who is currently believed to wander about 

 during November and December for the purpose of cutting off 

 human heads.* 



When Doctor Robinson left Manila for Amboina in June, 

 1913, he fully expected to complete the task of interpreting the 

 species described in the Herbarium Amboinense, but he lived 

 to finish only a part of the necessary field work. His un- 

 foreseen death, while he was actively prosecuting his field work, 

 placed an entirely different aspect on the problem, and in order 

 that his untimely death might not have been in vain, I felt 

 constrained to take up the task, at the point where Doctor 

 Robinson's labors were ended, and to carry the project to 

 completion, so far as this could be done from the material and 

 data available. 



The qualifications necessary to obtain the best results in this 

 special field are exacting. A wide knowledge of the Malayan 

 flora is essential, as is a thorough understanding of Latin, of 

 Dutch, and of the native names of plants in the Malay Archi- 

 pelago, qualifications to which I can lay claim only to a limited 



* Merrill, E. D. Charles Budd Robinson, Jr. Philip. Joum. Sci. 9 (1914) 

 Bot. 191-197. 



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