DESCRIPTIVE NOTES ON PAPDAN 
PLANTS, 
BT 
BAEON FEED. YON MUELLEE, I. & PH.D., F.E.S. 
IV. 
The following pages will give an account of a portion of the 
plants, collected during the latter part of this year by Signor 
D’Albertis along the Fly- River, and by Mr. A. Goldie in the 
country beyond Port Moresby. The remaining portion of the 
collections, kindly submitted to me by these courageous travellers, 
will be noted in a subsequent part of the present publication. In 
the first exploration of an unknown country, the means for 
elucidating its natural products are never perfect ; hence also in 
this instance some of the plants must be retained until further 
searches may complete the material needful for accurate investi- 
gation, especially as the lowland-jungle plants of New Guinea 
stand in close relation to those of insular India, the Philippines 
and Polynesia, a close analytic comparison of the species being 
therefore needful. The learned Dr. Beccari has commenced to 
prepare at Florence the descriptions of his Papuan Plants for 
Caruel’s Giorale Botanico Italiano ; but the portion of that* im- 
portant periodical, relating to the New-Guinean collections, has 
not appeared or at all events not yet reached Australia. But 
Dr. Beccari examined the vegetation of some of the north-western 
portions of the great Papuan Island, whereas Signor D’Albertia 
E 
