240 
The Phili23pihe Journal of Science 
1919 
in Atjeh and in central Sumatra, about 30 were described as 
new. A high percentage of the others enumerated had already 
been recorded from Sumatra by Miquel. 
The most important recent publication on the Sumatran flora 
as such is that by Ridley and others on the botany of Mount 
Korinchi, based on the collections of Messrs. H. C. Robinson 
and C. Boden Kloss.^ In this publication 813 species are enu- 
merated, of which 1 genus and 143 species are described as new. 
The percentage of novelties in this collection is certainly no less 
than can reasonably be expected from general collections made 
in any unexplored part of Sumatra where botanizing is largely 
confined to the forested areas. Among the previously described 
species enumerated by Ridley are naturally many that were 
already known from Sumatra, but there is also a considerable 
number originally described from other regions that had not 
previously been recorded from that island. 
Sumatran species have been published frolic time to time in 
the extensive botanical periodical literature and in monographs 
of various natural groups. Including such species and those 
listed in the few publications wholly based on the Sumatran 
flora that have been issued since 1862, it is very doubtful if the 
list of species definitely known from Sumatra has been in- 
creased by more than 500 in all groups since the publication 
of Miquel’s work. The list of Sumatran species known to-day 
would probably approximate about 3,000 in the spermatophytes 
alone, an indication of our lack of knowledge of the Sumatran 
flora as compared with other areas in the Malayan region, such 
as Java, with about 5,000 known species, Borneo with about 
4,900 known species, and the Philippines with about 8,000 
known species. On account of its large size, its varied cli- 
matic conditions, and its numerous high mountains, Sumatra can 
scarcely be less rich and varied in its flora than are the Malay 
Peninsula, Borneo, Java, and the Philippines; and from my 
present knowledge of the floras of these regions I should consider 
it very doubtful if we know more than one-third of the species 
that actually occur in Sumatra at the present time. 
I have recently received for identification Sumatran collections 
aggregating about 500 numbers, made under the direction of 
Messrs. H. H. Bartlett and C. D. La Rue, chiefly in the vicinity 
of Asahan, East Coast. While the material represented in this 
collection for the most part represents rather common and widely 
‘Results of an expedition to Korinchi Peak, Sumatra, Botany, Journ. 
Fed. Malay States Museums 8* (1917) 1-145, t. 1-i. 
