Miscellaneous botanical notes XX

In March 1962 Mr. A. Hoogerwerf collected swamp and savannah plants in the extreme South of New Guinea, about 25 km WNW. of Merauke, near a place Kurik, c. 10 km north of the mouth of the Kali Kumbe. There the Government was planning to start a mechanical rice plant with polders, as has been done in Suriname. As the experimental plot was menaced by too many birds, Mr. Hoogerwerf, an ornithologist, was making an investigation of the avifauna and collected plants in and around the marshes in order to verify later on which plants the birds fed. Among his collection there were many interesting plant species, especially sedges; Fimbristylis blepharolepis Kern was even a new species. Cyperus cf. angustatus R.Br., Rhynchospora heterochaeta Blake, and Fimbristylis dictyocolea Blake proved new for Malesia, Scleria laxa R.Br, new for the Papuan flora. Further there were much species belonging to the Australian element as Hardenbergia retusa Bth., Philydrum lanuginosum Gaertn., Calogyne pilosa R.Br., Phacellothrix cladochaeta F. v. M., Leptocarpus, Ceratanthus longicornis F. v. M., etc.