10 
and made pickled specimens for his studies at Cambridge University. ’Che" 
Md. Shah s collecting has been one of sampling the vanishing vegetation At 
the new Fish Culture Research Station pond site, flora was collected prior 
to initial flooding, and at Nilai the primary forest, being felled for rubber 
planting, was collected over. In this he found two hitherto undescribed species 
or Annonaceae. This is a rather soul-searing form of botanical study but 
with the extensive acreages of primary jungle being felled in Malaya it is 
considered desirable to know what was there even if it may now no longer 
exist. The Department is extending this aspect of collecting and a programme 
oi work at areas of forest felling in Malaya will be carried out in 1958. 
44. As already indicated new records were found during this work. In 
the relatively little known flora of Sarawak and North Borneo, novelties and 
species poorly represented in herbaria were collected. New records for Malacca 
are Rotala indica , Drymaria cordata, Lindernia sessiliflora and Rotala lepto- 
petala var. pentamera which is also new to Malaya. New for Johore are 
bcirpus squarrosus, Polygala paniculata, Litsea sebifera (planted two miles 
north of Simpang Rengam on the main trunk road), Halophila spinulosa, a 
marine Angiosperm found in the Johore Straits. New to Singapore are Dip- 
ta ocarpus kunstleri and D. sublamellatus. Another new record will serve to 
show how the amateur may add to scientific knowledge, A British serviceman 
on patrol against terrorists in a tin mining area near Siputeh in Perak collected 
a plant of Oldenlandia which cannot be matched in the Herbarium. It is un¬ 
doubtedly a new record for Malaya, if it is not a new species. 
XVI. EXCHANGE AND ACQUISITION 
1Q 45. 9,438 duplicates were distributed to other botanical institutions in 
1S ^ f ar the greatest number ever sent out except in 1947, when 
some 10,733 sheets were dispatched. The present number consisted both of 
specimens collected during 1957 and older specimens accumulated over the 
years. Some unnamed pre-war specimens have now been determined and will 
be distributed next year. Storage space is limited, and it will ease the conges¬ 
tion if more of these can be distributed. 
6. 2,544 duplicates were received in exchange from outside institutions 
during the year. This was less than last year when the number was 6,768, but 
m e long run a fair balance is struck. These acquisitions are gratefully 
acknowledged. Although everyone cannot be mentioned by name the following 
were among the principal contributors:—Herbarium Bogoriense; Royal 
Botanic Garden, Edinburgh; Forest Departments of Lae, Sarawak and North 
?- ntlSh Mu j eu , m; Rijksherbarium, Leiden; the Forest Research 
Ke P°^| and the University Andalas at Pajakumbuh, Sumatra. In 
addition, some 53 sheets were received from Vientiane collected by Mr. L. G. 
Holliday, His Excellency the British Ambassador to Laos. 
a resu J t ^f domestic collections by officers of the Department 
excl ? an g e duplicates received and mounted, 6,016 sheets were laid-in 
of the geneml U sTze g 1 CabmetS ^ bought ’ four for palms and four 
XVII. TAXONOMY 
tNntrnpff a H r t u°T P f ted hls J evislon of the Malayan Mvristicaceae 
Cardpnf’ *5** Sllbmi tted for printing in volume 16 of the 
wn t nl S' Th ! S BU i e Qco ha A SeV c eral papers of significant interest and 
will be published early m 1958. Mr. Sinclair continued his studies on the 
Myristicaceae by extending the field to the whole Malaysian region for a 
