Curator of the Calcutta Herbarium, to whom I fear I have on many occasions
given much trouble during the preparation and publication of the present
volume.
I wish also to tender my warmest thanks to Sir Joseph Hooker, who has
encouraged me to undertake the task of preparing a general work on the
Asiatic Palms, and to Sir William Thiselton-Dyer, his successor in the
Directorship of the Botanical Museum of Kew, which has been my main
source of information regarding the Palms that form the subject of the present
study. I have likewise to express my thanks to Professor A. Eugler for the
loan of the sets of Calami and Baemonorofs of the Berlin Herbarium, carefully
arranged for me by that enthusiastic Phoenicologist Dr. Udo Dammer. The
Berlin collection has proved very rich in new species, chiefly the fruits of the
explorations of Dr. Merrih in the Phflippines, of the German botanists in New
Guinea, and specially of Dr. Varburg in various parts of Malesia and the
adjacent countries.
My cordial thanks are also due to Professor L. Eadlkofer who has
granted me the use of some of the type specimens of Martius, preserved m
the Herbarium at Munich; to the late Professor Crepin and to Professor
Durand for stiU other types of Martius that exist at Brussels; to the
late Professor Suringar and to my lamented friend Dr. Bcerlage of the Leiden
Herbarium who selected, on my behalf and sent to Florence, an mstruetive
specimen of every one of the species of Blume ; to Dr. J. W. 0. Goethart,
who has more recently sent me valuable contributions from the same s Bijks
Herbarium of Leiden; to the late Professors Begel and Mai.mowioz, also
lost friends- and to their successor Professor Pischer von Waldheim, for the
loan of the entire collection of Palms belonging to the St. Petersburg
Herbarium.
I have abo to thank the foUowlng friends for their kindness in supplying
me with specimens of Palms of which I was in need : - M r . Casimir de
CandoUe of Geneva; Dr. John Briquet, Conservator of the Herbarium
Delessert; Mr. G. Beauverd, Conservator of the Herbarium Barbey-Boissier ;
Dr. A. ' ZahlbTuckner of the Vienna Herbarium; Professors E. Bureau, J.
Poisson and E. Bonnet of the "Muséum d'Histoire Naturelle" of Paris.
To Mr. H. N. Ridley of the Botanic Garden of Singapore I am indebted
for many of the Palms that grow in that island and in Johore, regions which
he has thoroughly explored.
But for the largest contribution to my work I am under a deep obligation
to the Bev Father Scortechini, so untimely lost to Science, who moat
generously placed at my disposal the whole of his Malayan Palms, with his notes
L d drawings, although this group of plants was ore of those he had intended
to describe himself.
I have derived valuable help from a most splendid set of the Calami
and Baemonorops cultivated in the Botanic Garden at Buitenzorg, beautifully
represented by extraordinarily large and complete specimens. Por this collection I
am indebted to Dr. Melchior Treub, the eminent Director of that great
establishment: to him and to his assistants I wish gratefully to express my
warm thanks.
I t gives me much pleasure also to acknowledge the kind help of many
friends who have most generously supplied me with invaluable specimens from
their collections. Thus I have to thank my late friend Baron Perdinand von
Mueller for many Australian and Papuan Palms; Mr. Louis Pierre, of whose
monumental Porest Plora of Cochin China the botanical world greatly regrets
the discontinuance, for many Indo-Chinese specimens; Sir D. Brandia, Mr. C.
B. Clarke and Mr. J. Sykes Gamble, for Palms from various parts of India;
my late dear friend Signor Leonardo Pea, for Palms from Central Burma; the
late Dr. K. Schumann for some from New Guinea; Dr. Schweinfurth for the
few species growing in the Niam-Niam coiintry in Central Africa; Mr. Gustav
Mann, formerly Couservator of Forests in Assam, for an almost complete
collection of the Pahns of the various districts of that Province; and Mr. E.
H. Man, for an equally important collection from the Andamans and Nicobars,
of whose Civil Commission he was for so many years a member.
In conclusion, it may be remarked that from the commencement of my
own explorations I gave special attention to the collection of Palms. The
material brought together by myself to represent these Princes of the Vegetable
Kingdom is, therefore, as regards the tropical Asiatic Archipelagos, probably more
important than that existing in any other Museum. This material is now the
property of the " Istituto di Studi Superiori" of Florence; and I feci certain
that the authorities who superintend it must be very pleased to see an
important part of their collection now magnificently illustrated through the
enlightened munificence of the Government of Bengal.
0 . B E C O A M.
FLORENCE, 1905.