Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 12.djvu/843

817 INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO 817 field for botanical research in the archipelago is still vast and alluring. Among the very giants of the forest the unregistered species must be numerous ; and, if we descend to the minor forms, it is a very poor collection that does not yield something absolutely new to science. The ferns, the pitcher plants, and the orchids are especially numerous, and have attracted particular attention. &quot;The volcano of Pangerango in Java is said to have, for example, yielded three hundred species of ferns ;&quot; and Mr Burbidge, in a short excursion in Borneo in 1879, found upwards of fifty species that had not been previously obtained in the island. For detailed information in regard to the flora, the reader may consult C. G. le Keinwardt, Vcber den Character dcr Vegetation a u&quot; den Inscln dcs Ind. Archipch, Berlin, 1828 ; Belanger, Botanique dtt Voyage auxlndcs Orientates, 1825-1829, Varis, 1832; the various works of C. L. TSlwue (Muse urn botanicum Lugd.-Bat., Leyden, 1849- 51; Collection des orchidecs, Amster., 1858, &c.); W. H. de Yriese, Nouvelles Rcchcrchcs sur la flare dcs possessions Nccrland. a.ux Indcs Or., Amst., 1845; Hasskarl, Catalog us plantar uni in horto botanico Bogoriciisi cultarum, Berl., 1844; F. Dozy and J. II. Molkenboer, Bryologia Javanica scu dcscriptio muscorum frondosorum Arch. Ind., Leyden, 1844-58; H. Zollinger, System. Vcrzeichniss dcr im Lid. Arch. 1842-1848 ycsammcltcn .... Pflanzcn, Zurich, 1854; Miguel, Flora van Ncdcrlandsch Indie, Amst., 1855, Annalcs Musci Botanici Lugduno-Batavi, 1869, and Illustrations de laflorc de TAr- chipel Indien, 1871 (continued by Suringar). If we tarn to the economical aspect of the vegetation, whether natural or cultivated, we cannot fail to be impressed by its varied resources. The list of fruits is a very exten sive one ; though unfortunately it is only with a very few of them that the untravelled European can have any practical acquaintance. Besides the orange, the mango, the mangosteen, the pomato or shaddock, the guava, the papaw, and the jack fruit, we have the rambutan, the tarippe or trap, the jintawan, the tampu, the bilimbing, the mamhangan, the langsat, the rambi, and the jambosa. The name at least of the durian is now well known (see DURIAN), and nearly as strange is the bawangutan (Scor- doprasum lorneense], of which the fruit, the leaves, and the branches have all a strong odour and flavour of onions. 1 Of what more distinctively deserve the name of food-plants the variety is equally notable. Not only are rice and maize (usually called djngony in the archipelago), sugar and coffee, among the widely cultivated crops, but the cocoa-nut, the bread fruit, the banana and plantain (usually called pisang in the archipelago), the sugar-palm (Arcnga saccharifera), the tea-plant, the sago-palm, thecocoa- tree (which curiously yields the favourite beverage of the Sulu archipelago), the ground-nut, the Caladium esculentum, the yam, the cassava, and others besides, are of practical importance. The cultivation of sugar and coffee owes its development mainly to the Dutch ; and to them also is due the introduction of tea. They have greatly encouraged the cultivation of the cocoa-nut among the natives, and it now flourishes, especially in the coast districts, in almost every island in their territory. The oil is very largely employed in native cookery. The sago-palm is most abundant in the island of Ceram, but is also found growing wild in Borneo, Celebes, Timor, and other islands of the Moluccas, in the Linga archipelago, and in parts of Sumatra. The product is mainly prepared for export. Pepper, nutmegs, and cloves were long the objects of the most important branch of Dutch commerce ; and camphor, dammar, benzoin, and other products of a similar kind have a place among the exports. India-rubber and gutta percha are no longer ob tained to the same extent as formerly. 2 gy- To the naturalist the Indian archipelago is a region of the highest interest ; and from an early period it has attracted the attention of explorers of the first rank. And 1 See Burbidge s interesting chapter in his Gardens of the Su~n, 1880. 2 Compare Musschenbroek, Jlfededeelingen omti-cnt grondftoffen nit fat oost. gedeelte van onsen Ind. Archipcl, Briel, 1880. yet the list of its living forms is far from being completely ascertained. The best known district is western Java, and Timor, the Moluccas, and the Papuan Islands have for the most part been well explored. Only parts of (Sumatra, Borneo, and Celebes have been worked, and most of the other islands have yet to be dealt with/ 1 Zoologically the archipelago belongs to two distinct regions the eastern or Papuan, and the western or Malay or Indian. This latter region, according to August von Pelzeln (&quot; Ueber die Malayische Saugethiere-Fauna &quot; in Festschrift zur Feier des Filnfundz wanziyjdhriyen Bestehens dcr K.K. Zool.-Bot. Gesellschaft in Wien,. Vienna, 1S7G), comprises southern China, Tibet, the Himalaya, and Further India, as well as the islands of the archipelago up to Wallace s line. He finds six genera of the Qtiadrutnana, fourteen of the Chiro- ptera, five of the Insectivora, fourteen of the Carnivora, six of the Rodentia, of the Edentata one only (Manis), five of Ruminants, and three of Pachyderms. Sumatra indicates a connexion with the Malacca peninsula by Nemorhoedus^ the elephant, Gymnura, and the tapir. Pithecus, Tarsius, and Ptilocercits seem peculiar to the Sunda Islands. The Philippines have Semnopithccus, Macacus, Cynopithecus, Galeopitkecus, Pteropus, Taphozom, Vesjwtilis,. Viverra, Paradoxurus, Pleromys, Mas, Rusa, and Cervulus. In his various works Mr Wallace has mad.e the English reader familiar with the most striking features of zoological distribution, in the archipelago; and in his Island Life, especially, the ornitho logy receives particular attention. For details in regard to the mam mals and birds, see Horsiield, Zoological Researches in Jura and the Neighbouring Islands, 1834 ; Van Temminck, Monographies de Marti&quot; mologie, 1827-1829 and 1835-1841; Vcr/umdclinycn over denatuur* lijke gescMcdcnis dcr Ncdcrlandsche orerzccschc bezittingen, contain ing papers by S. Muller and H. Schlegel ; zoological appendix to Belcher s Voyage of II. M. Ship &quot; b aniarang,&quot; Loud., 1850 ; H. Schlegel, Museum d hist. naturcUe dcs Pays-Bus.: lievue meth. et crit. des Collections, Leyden, 1863-76; Id., Mem. sur les quadrumanes ct les cheiroptercs de I archipcl indicn, Amst., 1864; Id., D&amp;lt;; Vogels van Ncdcrlandsch Indie beseJircrcn en afgebeeld, Leyden, 1876 ; Von Rosenberg, &quot; Overzichtstabellen voor de Ornithologie van den Indischen Archipel&quot; in Acta Scicnt. Ind. Nccrland., part v. ; T. Salvadori, &quot; Catalogo sistematico degli uccelli di Borneo,&quot; in Annali di Gcnora. To the herpetology of the archipelago valu able contributions have been made by P. Bleeker, A. C. J. Edeling, and A. B. Meyer. Like so much else of value, their papers are mainly to be found in the Nat. Tijds. ran Ned. I/id. For the fishes the great modern authority is Bleeker, whose principal work, however, was left unfinished (Atlas ichtliyologiquc des Indcs oricn- tales Nccrlandaises), and whose smaller contributions are scattered through more than a dozen periodicals. The ethnology of the Indian archipelago does not its difficult problems ; but some outstanding features are 1&amp;lt;1; easily described. There are at least two main native races, the brown long-haired Malay and the darker-skinned frizzly-haired Papuan. And to these more recent explora tions make it almost certain that a third and probably more thoroughly aboriginal race the Negrito must be added, though even specialists who have had opportunities of direct observation are not unanimous in regard to this noteworthy element. The Malays are subdivided into an immense number of tribes and peoples in the most various stages of civilization, and broadly differenced from each other by physical and linguistic characteristics. Of chief note are the Malays proper, the Javanese, the Bugis, the Ta^alas, and Bisayas, the people of the Moluccas, the Dayaks (mainly in Borneo), the Battaks of Sumatra, tl Sulu islanders (closely similar to the tribes of northern Borneo). The Papuan race is chiefly to be found in the eastern section of the archipelago. Besides these three races, whose first connexion with the archipelago dates from before the dawn of history, we have a variety of intrusive elements, traceable by more or less strictly historical in het bijzondcr door Nederland, yedaan is voor de Kennis der Fauna van Ncderlandsch Indie, Leyden, 1879. XII 103
 * See Professor Vetli s valuable monograph, Orerzicht vtni Jwtyeen,