The Bamboos of New Guinea

Abstract

Taxonomic publications on the bamboos of New Guinea appear to have been confined to the description of individual species (I4 in all) and to a few subsequent transfers of names from one genus to another. The present paper is an attempt to collate all this earlier information with a study of later collections of specimens, and of field observations made in 1963. I am indebted to Mr. J. S. Womersley, head of the Division of Botany, Department of Forests, at Lae, who arranged travel for me in the Territory of New Guinea, and to Mrs. Andrie Millar who organized all details of transport and the collection of specimens. I am also indebted to Mr. L. Edwards of Port Moresby for taking me to the type locality of Dendrocalamusforbesii Ridl. The type specimens of species described by German authors, formerly at Berlin, were destroyed during the 1939-45 War, but I have seen duplicate or other cited specimens of a few, and I believe I have been successful in identifying most of the others with later collections. References to some species of the Moluccas and the Solomon Islands, related to New Guinea species, are also here included.