On the Biology of some Javanese Loranthaceae and the role birds play in their life-historie

1 began my investigations about the galls of the Loranthaceae in Salatiga in 1908 and continued this work in Samarang from 1909 to 1915. Here I also examined the germination of the seeds. From 1915—1918 I stayed in Bandung where I had little opportunity to continue my investigations. From 1918—1932 I lived in Buitenzorg (Bogor) where I could resume my studies on the Loranthaceae, not only as to the germination of the seeds, but also the pollination of the flowers. For this purpose I sowed many species of Loranthaceae on shrubs in the neighbourhood of my home, so that I could easily check the development and had ample material at my disposal. The investigations were hampered by the chaotic conditions of the systematics of the Indomalayan Loranthaceae in 1909. In Samarang for instance I found that the germination of various species followed a different course, but could not work it out comparatively, because most species could not be indentified with certainty. The material I collected in Salatiga and Samarang was compared by Dr J. J. Smith, at the time on leave in Holland, with Loranthus-material in the Leyden Herbarium. Only a few of them could be identified with sufficient certainty, many of them could only be classed with some genus and some of them could not be classified at all. The result was that in the first publication on the germination of the seeds (Docters van Leeuwen-Reijnvaan, 1915: 220) some species could only be indicated by a digit, an unsatisfactory solution.