Commentary on the general results

Abstract

As regards the collection of plants, totalling about 3000 numbers, most of the flowering plants and ferns have been identified by the staff of the Royal Botanic Garden at Kew, mainly by Mr Forman and Professor Holttum. We collected, whenever possible, ten to twelve duplicates and most of these are being distributed to the main herbaria of the world. There are still, nevertheless, many specimens which need monographic revision to establish their true identity. It is impossible, yet, to say how many are new. Professor J. L. Harrison, at the University of Singapore, is still at work on his account of the small mammals and their parasites. Mr Askew is at work on the soil samples. For my part, I have studied the fig collections, and there is nowhere in the world, that I know of, with such a rich fig flora as Kinabalu. It has 78 species (15 endemic), and our expedition discovered 2 new species and 4 new varieties, which fit neatly into gaps in the classification which I have been making. The fig insects are being studied by Dr Wiebes, at the National Museum in Leiden, in our joint effort to write the zoo-botany of Ficus . Already, Dr Wiebes has been able to publish a revision of the insect genus solen which inhabits Ficus sect. Sycocarpus ; he recognizes 32 species of which 23 are new, including 10 from our collections on Kinabalu. I am also at work on the fungi, which have to be collated with my earlier Malayan collections. This work, however, means almost monographic treatment of every group. With the great help of Dr Bas, at the National Herbarium in Leiden, an illustrated account of the genus Amanita in Malaya and Borneo has recently been published. We recognize 22 new species out of a total of 30, and this proportion shows the difficulty of pursuing mycology where there are so few names.