384 
Philippine Journal of Science 
1920 
In some localities the clearing of land for planting coconuts, 
bananas, abaca, corn, and rice is an important factor in the 
destruction of the original vegetation. It is probable that the 
destruction of the original forest to make room for commercial 
plantations is in progress, more or less, over the entire Eastern 
Tropics, In this connection Merrill says 
It is only necessary to examine most parts of Java below an altitude 
of 4,000 feet, such islands as Singapore, immense areas in the Malay 
Peninsula, and the settled areas generally in the whole Malayan region 
in order to gain some appreciation of the disastrous effects of man’s 
activities on the floras of these regions. It is a well-known fact that 
where the virgin, or primary, forest is once destroyed in the Eastern 
Tropics, the areas practically never revert to the original type of vegeta- 
tion, at least in any reasonable amount of time. If the cleared lands 
are abandoned, as they frequently are by the primitive native agriculturist, 
they are quickly occupied by grass formations, usually lalang (Imperata) , 
bamboo formations, or complex second-growth forests in constituent species 
entirely different from the primary, or virgin, type. The pressure on 
the primary forest is rapidly increasing in many parts of Malaya, not 
only by the increase in the native Malay population, and the resultant 
demand for more agricultural lands, but also in the demands of modern 
industries for increased production in such commodities as rubber and 
copra and for other tropical products such as sugar, tobacco, fibers, 
coffee, tea, and other staples. Since the beginning of the present century 
immense areas in the Malay Peninsula, in Sumatra, in the Philippines, 
and doubtless in Borneo and in other parts of Malaya have been denuded 
of their original vegetation to provide place for modern plantations, and 
it is safe to assume that most such areas will never again be occupied 
by primary forests. The shade plants and enormous trees characteristic 
of the primary forest cannot persist under the conditions demanded by 
modern agriculture, and they cannot exist in the second-growth forests, 
grasslands, and bamboo thickets that rapidly encroach on cleared areas 
that are abandoned. Perhaps without realizing the fact we are witness- 
ing in our own generation the rapid extermination of some of the noblest 
types of tropical vegetation, and all botanists should be interested in 
preserving at least herbarium records while such records are to be secured. 
The present century will certainly witness an enormous extension of the 
agricultural areas in Malaya, for modern science has rendered our “con- 
quest of the Ti'opics” a comparatively simple matter; and any general 
extension of agricultural areas will to a large degree be at the expense 
of regions now covered with forests of one type or another. 
Shelford notes that — 
* * * even in Sarawak, that peaceful backwater of civilization, 
there have been notable alterations in the land fauna in the neighborhood 
Merrill, E. D., A bibliographic enumeration of Bornean plants. In- 
troduction. MS. 
“ Shelford, R. W. C., A naturalist in Borneo. E. P. Dutton and Co., 
New York (1917) 294. 
