Miscellaneous information

Flora of Java. Dr C.A. Backer has been working towards the composition of a Dutch-written Flora of Java since about 1903, at first in Java, and onwards of 1931 in Holland. When the war started it was thought safer to mimeograph the MS. as far as it was finished, in order to save the writers’ labours against the chance of complete destruction by bombing or other causes. Prof. Dr H.J. Lam managed to get a number of subscribers and funds for a mimeograph edition. This constitures the ”Nooduitgave” (emergency edition) in which up till now 120 families have appeared in 7 folio volumes. The edition was limited to ca 25 copies. It is the intention to edit 2 volumes more, and then stop it. Circumstances necessitate the printed edition to be written in English to which the author has now consented, and which he will manage himself, Prof. Lam also succeeded in getting a number of temporary cooperators who have assisted Dr Backer in revising some families, viz. Dr A.D.J. Meeuse, A.G.L. Adelbert, and R.C. Bakhuizen van den Brink Jr, whilst the specialists Dr J. Wasscher, Dr S.J. van Ooststroom and Miss Dr G.J.H. Amshoff and the late Prof. Dr B.H. Danser made contributions. She revisions are now nearing completion. Only very few families, mostly sympetalous, are not yet finished. The flora will include the Pteridophytes (more than 500 in Java) and through the consent of Mrs Smith also the Orchidaceae (ca 700!); the latter will be revised on the basis of the MS. revision left by the late Dr J.J. Smith. In the emergency edition practically all synonyms have been omitted for brevity’s sake. It is to be hoped that they will be re-inserted in the scientific edition now aimed at. Endless labours have been spent in identifying the species described under various names, and to a certain extent these synonyms have shaped the specific delimitations and argumentate the present conceptions. They can be omitted in a concise popular flora, but not in the work now prepared. It has taken a long way to reach the present state to account for the flora of Java, but we are sure that the work will certainly be the most valuable contribution towards the flora of Java ever made, as its author possesses an unsurpassed field knowledge combined with a very critical taxonomical point of view.