Introduction

After the appearance of RUMPHIUS’S Herbarium Amboinense, the result of lifelong research into the botanical treasures of the Malaysian Archipelago, the first comprehensive work on the flora of these islands was begun by C. L. BLUME, the second Director of the Botanic Gardens at Buitenzorg. His Bijdragen lot de Flora van Nederlandsch Indie (Contributions to the Flora of the Netherlands Indies) consisted of numerous brief botanical diagnoses mostly, however, of Javan species. Shortly after followed his Flora Javae and later Rumphia. None of these books represent a ‘flora’; neither completeness was aimed at nor keys were given. The first design for a flora of the whole of Malaysia seems to have been drafted by the Swiss botanists H. ZOLLINGER and his teacher, A. MORITZI.¹ I have not succeeded in tracing any further results of their plans.