Article

Plants

From Munshipedia, the MBRAS digital historical encyclopedia

Plants

The botanical literature of the Straits and Malayan Branches of the Royal Asiatic Society constitutes one of the most sustained and detailed records of plant life in the Malay Peninsula and Borneo produced during the colonial period. Spanning from the late 1890s through the 1980s, the Society’s journals document the flora of the region across multiple scales—from the morphology of a single genus to the vegetation of an entire island—and encompass taxonomic description, ecological observation, economic botany, ethnobotany, and the history of plant introduction. The work is anchored by the field observations of H. N. Ridley, first Director of the Singapore Botanic Gardens (1888–1913), whose papers form the empirical core of the early literature, and extends through the contributions of R. E. Holttum, A. W. Hamilton, B. C. Stone, and others into the post-war period [1], [2], [3], [4].

Scope and Taxonomic Coverage

The Society’s plant literature ranges from brief notices of single species to multi-page monographs and comprehensive floras. At the narrowest end, Ridley’s 1903 note describes a new species of Balanophora (B. Micholitzii) from the Tenimber Islands, a fleshy parasitic plant with a small rounded rhizome, orbicular white leaves, and a globose yellowish bisexual capitulum, allied to B. Zollingeri from Salayer but larger in all parts [5]. At the broadest, Ridley’s 1897 “Malay Plant Names” spans 252 pages and contains well over two thousand distinct Malay plant names correlated with scientific determinations, covering trees, climbers, herbs, palms, ferns, orchids, fungi, and seaweeds [2].

Between these extremes, the literature addresses specific genera and families with considerable depth. Ridley’s 1898 monograph on Peliosanthes describes seven species for the Malay Peninsula—four of them new to science—establishing a diagnostic key based on the position of the ovary relative to the staminal ring, and documenting the genus’s distribution across the Peninsula, India, Siam, Cochin China, and Java [6]. His 1908 note on the Labiates (Lamiaceae) assesses the thirty species listed in the Materials for a Flora of the Malay Peninsula, concluding that only fifteen can be considered truly indigenous, the remainder being garden escapes or introductions [7]. The 1915 instalment of Ridley’s “New or Rare Malayan Plants” series describes six new species drawn from collections across Pahang, Penang, Singapore, and Sarawak, supplied by collectors including Burn Murdoch, Beccari, and Burkill [8].

The 1930 collaboration between A. W. Hamilton and R. E. Holttum represents a different mode of botanical documentation: a practical identification guide to approximately 115 common plants and littoral trees of Singapore Island, organised under local Malay and Chinese vernacular names rather than scientific ones. The work spans roughly 45 angiosperm families plus a wood-destroying fungus and a seaweed, and deliberately restricts itself to “commoner” species, making it a field companion rather than a comprehensive flora [3]. Nine mangrove species are identified, including Excoecaria agallocha, Bruguiera gymnorrhiza, and Avicennia officialis, alongside at least eleven non-mangrove littoral and seashore species [3].

Ecological and Dispersal Studies

Ridley’s 1894 paper “On the dispersal of seeds by mammals” is the most substantial ecological treatment of plants in the Society’s literature. Drawing on extensive field observations across the Malay Peninsula, Ridley argues that mammals—though secondary to birds—constitute a significant and evolutionarily formative agent of seed dispersal in tropical forests, and that the morphological characteristics of mammal-dispersed fruits (dull colouration, large size, smooth or slippery surfaces) represent adaptive responses to the foraging behaviours of monkeys, bears, squirrels, civets, and bats [1].

A recurring analytical thread is the contrast between mammal-dispersed fruits (plain green, large, inconspicuous) and bird-dispersed fruits (scarlet, orange, small), which Ridley attributes to the different sensory modalities and flight altitudes of the two groups. His observations of Willughbeia in open sandy country near the Pahang River—where the fruit has evolved bright apricot-yellow colouration and reduced size to attract birds in the absence of monkeys—provide a natural experiment supporting this distinction [1]. In dense jungle localities where monkeys are scarce, the ground beneath fruiting Willughbeia trees becomes “carpeted with seedlings” within days of fruit fall, yet nearly all perish within a few weeks from overcrowding and absence of light [1].

The article’s most extended analytical passage concerns the dispersal of oaks and chestnuts by squirrels. Ridley demonstrates that the smooth polished surface of Quercus lucida acorns, and the fine silky coating of Q. encleisocarpa and Q. Cantleyi, function as anti-handling adaptations: squirrels cannot grip the fruit firmly enough to consume it, so the seed drops and rolls away. He acknowledges this is an “expensive” strategy—many seeds are destroyed—but argues that the enormous crop size compensates [1]. The Musang (Viverra malaccensis) was recorded passing intact seeds of coffee, Gnetum scandens, Caryota Cumingii, and Mimusops elengi in its excreta; planters deliberately collected these seeds for cultivation on the belief they produced stronger plants [1].

Ridley’s 1909 note on Burbidgea identifies the only known case of wind dispersal in the order Scitamineae. The thin papery capsules split along one side, leaving very small, light seeds (3 mm long) suspended by short funicles, each bearing a thin papery aril cut into laciniae; the seeds hang downwards, waving in the wind and easily detached [9]. This contrasts with the typical animal-mediated strategies across the order—brightly coloured capsules with arils attracting birds in Alpinia and Hedychium, and dull-coloured fruits dispersed by rodents in Anomum and Phaeomeria [9].

The 1980 survey of Pulau Balambangan by B. C. Stone represents the most comprehensive vegetation study in the Society’s literature. Working with Edward F. Anderson and Richard Albert during an expedition sponsored by the Sabah State Government and the World Wildlife Fund (Malaysia), Stone defined nine major vegetation types—strand, mangrove, brackish swamp, freshwater marsh, sandy heath, limestone forest, chert forest, ultrabasic forest, and marine vegetation—and documented a flora of at least 309 species, 185 of which were first recorded from the island during the survey [4]. The central argument is that geological substrate (limestone, chert-spilite, ultrabasic ophiolite, and alluvium) is the primary determinant of vegetation type, with water availability and salinity, wind exposure, and fire acting as secondary modifiers [4]. The discovery of Pandanus occultus—previously known only from a single type specimen from Palawan—is interpreted as evidence of relict populations whose distributional continuity was severed by Pleistocene inundation, rather than as evidence of recent dispersal from the Philippines [4].

Economic Botany and Colonial Agriculture

The Society’s literature documents the economic significance of plants in the region with particular attention to commercial cultivation. Sir William Hunter’s manuscript flora of Penang, composed in the late 1790s and published posthumously in 1909 with an introduction by Ridley, provides the earliest systematic botanical account of the island and the earliest recorded observations on the fruiting of nutmeg and mangosteen in the Straits Settlements [10]. Hunter describes the physical geography of Penang, its climate, its population of approximately 20,000, and the economic logic of its plantations, with the spice gardens of the Honourable East India Company at Ayer Hitam featuring prominently throughout [10].

The most substantial passage concerns pepper cultivation, where Hunter provides a detailed account of propagation methods, support trees (Morinda citrifolia and Erythrina corallodendron), the “laying down” technique for training vines, harvesting cycles, and processing. He includes a financial appendix calculating the projected returns on a 100,000-vine plantation over twelve years, and records that the island’s total pepper output in the year of his survey was estimated at 16,000–20,000 picols, valued at approximately 216,000 Spanish dollars at the prevailing price of 12 dollars per picol [10]. The text also documents failed commercial ventures—sugar manufacture, gambier production, and indigo cultivation—all abandoned because the high cost of labour rendered them unprofitable relative to imported goods [10].

Christopher Smith, appointed botanist to the Company in 1794, sent from Amboyna in 1796 a consignment of 71,266 nutmegs and 55,264 clove plants, along with quantities of Canarium commune and Arenga saccharifera, which were established in the Company’s spice gardens at Ayer Hitam [10]. Ridley’s introduction identifies the locality of these gardens for the first time with certainty and reconstructs Smith’s career, noting that the Government gardens founded in 1822 on the same site were sold cheaply by Governor Murchison in 1834 [10].

The 1933 article by Hamilton and Holttum on “A Malay Garden” documents the extraordinary cosmopolitan character of the traditional Malay ornamental garden, drawing on flora from Brazil, Africa, the Americas, New Guinea, China, and India [11]. A recurring theme is the Chinese linguistic imprint on Malay plant names: Kekwa (chrysanthemum) from Kek Hoa, Kimbong (balsam) from Kim Hong, Goyap (pink) from go hiap, and Kengwa (night-blooming cereus) from Keng Hoa [11]. The cultural notes embedded in the entries document specific practices: the use of Kelang (Clitoria ternatea) flowers as a blue dye for sweetmeats, Kesumba (Bixa orellana) seed-coats as a red dye, Kenanga (Cananga odorata) petals for scenting hair and bedding, and Kēmuning (Murraya exotica) wood for keris handles [11].

Ethnobotany and Folk Knowledge

Ridley’s “Malay Plant Names” (1897) arose from his observation that existing dictionaries and vocabularies—those of Marsden, Favre, and particularly Filet—contained numerous incorrect, Sumatran, or Javanese entries that did not reflect actual Peninsular usage, and that the native names of economic plants (drugs, timbers, fruits) urgently required accurate botanical identification [2]. The work is structured as a continuous A-to-Y alphabetical list, each entry giving the vernacular term (with dialectal variants and regional qualifiers such as Johor, Pahang, Malacca, or Singapore), the Latin binomial, the family name, and a brief note on habitat, uses, or etymology [2].

Ridley is candid about the list’s incompleteness: many names from the interior Native States were unobtainable, a number of plants for which he had native names remained botanically unidentified or undescribed, and many timber trees and rattans were known only by trade-product names that could not be reliably matched to the living tree [2]. He decodes a set of recurring semantic qualifiers—jantan (male, indicating less conspicuous fruit), betina (female), gajah (large), tikus/tupai (small), hantu (false), hutan (wild), and antan (false)—which he argues function as a kind of grammatical apparatus within the naming system [2]. He also identifies the etymological source of numerous place-names in the Peninsula as plant names: Malacca (from laka-laka, Phyllanthus), Pekan, Setul, Penang, Changi, Cape Rumenia, Tanjong Ru, and Gunong Pulai [2].

Ridley’s 1899 note on “Golden flowers” records the Malay and Straits Chinese folk belief in golden flowers that occasionally appear on certain trees and confer wealth upon their finder. He recounts two instances: a Pandan Wangi that produced a golden flower which regrew when broken off, enriching its owner until his death, and a Javanese labourer who saw a red flower on a Ficus Miquelii in the Botanic Gardens but lost the opportunity by calling a companion rather than seizing it immediately. Ridley offers a botanical rationalization: both the Pandanus and the fig normally have inconspicuous or hidden flowers, so the rare appearance of a visible bloom is easily mythologized as a golden one [12].

The 1912 note on plants collected during Moulton’s expedition to Mount Batu Lawi in Sarawak documents the flora of a mountain that had never before been reached by a European. The collecting was necessarily hurried and limited by the expedition’s short supply of provisions, the dense terrain, and persistent wet weather, yet the yield was described as “regrettably small” yet “surprisingly rich in new and rare species” [13]. The mountain slopes at approximately 5,660 feet supported low-growing gnarled shrubs covered in thick moss over limestone, in contrast to the tall virgin jungle of the lower elevations [13].

Research and Documentation

The Society’s plant literature reveals a clear evolution in methodological approach and institutional context. The earliest contributions—Hunter’s 1790s manuscript and Ridley’s 1890s papers—reflect the late-Victorian naturalist tradition of descriptive ecology and Linnaean taxonomy, predating formal population ecology and the quantitative apparatus of later dispersal studies [1], [10]. Ridley’s work, conducted as Director of the Singapore Botanic Gardens, drew directly on his fieldwork across the Straits Settlements and the Malay states, including observations in the Tahan Valley (Pahang), Mount Ophir (Singapore), and the Botanic Gardens itself [1], [2], [6]. His collecting network relied upon a collaborative but hierarchically structured apparatus: Burn Murdoch in Pahang, Beccari in Borneo, Burkill in Selangor, and local collectors such as Mohammed Haniff [8].

The transition to the Malayan Branch period (1923–1963) is marked by the Hamilton–Holttum collaborations of 1930 and 1933, which reflect the standard colonial-era practice of pairing a local collector with a station botanist for identification [3], [11]. These works shift emphasis from original taxonomic discovery toward practical compilation and the documentation of indigenous knowledge systems before they were displaced by modernisation [3], [11]. Holttum, who later became a professor at the University of Malaya, makes no claim to original taxonomic discovery in the 1930 guide but serves as a practical authority, drawing implicitly on the herbarium and field work of the Singapore Botanic Gardens and on Ridley’s earlier floras [3].

The post-war period is represented by Stone’s 1980 survey of Pulau Balambangan, which employs the methods of modern vegetation science—sample plots, transects, and intensive collecting—and engages explicitly with biogeographical theory, arguing against the simplistic framing of the island’s flora as possessing a “Philippine” element and proposing instead that the Palawan–Balabac–Banggi–Balambangan shelf constitutes a distinct insular floristic area [4]. The survey’s herbarium collections were distributed to six institutions (Sandakan, KLU, Whitman College, Berkeley, Leiden, and Kew), reflecting the international collaborative networks that had replaced the earlier colonial survey apparatus [4].

A persistent thread across the entire literature is the documentation of introduced species and their ecological consequences. From Hunter’s account of the Company’s spice gardens [10], through Ridley’s tracing of Scoparia dulcis (a South American introduction) up the Pahang and Tembeling Rivers as far as the water buffalo ranged [1], to the 1930 guide’s explicit listing of introduced species from Africa, the Americas, China, and India [3], and the 1933 garden catalogue’s demonstration of the Malay ornamental garden as a highly syncretic assemblage [11], the Society’s literature consistently records the movement of plants across the Indian Ocean and the South China Sea, and the cultural processes by which foreign species were absorbed into local practice.

MBRAS Sources

References

  1. H.N. Ridley (1894). On the dispersal of seeds by mammals JSBRAS 25: 11–32.
  2. H.N. Ridley (1897). Malay plant names JSBRAS 30: 31–283.
  3. Hamilton A.W and T. Kitching (1930). Malayan plants: a collection made by A.W. Hamilton of some of the commoner plants and littoral trees found on Singapore Island. Identifications and descriptions. R.E. Holttum JMBRAS 8(2): 318–329. Read on JSTOR
  4. B.C. Stone (1980). The vegetation and plant communities of Pulau Balambangan, Sabah, East Malaysia JMBRAS 53(1): 68–89.
  5. H.N. Ridley (1903). A new Balanophera from Tenimber Islands JSBRAS 39: 207. Read on JSTOR
  6. H.N. Ridley (1898). The Peliosanthes of the Malay Peninsula JSBRAS 31: 91–98. Read on JSTOR
  7. H.N. Ridley (1908). The labiates of the Malay Peninsula JSBRAS 50: 105–107.
  8. H.N. Ridley (1915). New or rare Malayan plants JSBRAS 68: 11–14. Read on JSTOR
  9. H.N. Ridley (1909). Fruit of Burbidgea JSBRAS 53: 175–176.
  10. W. Hunter (1909). Plants of Prince of Wales Island. {With an introduction H.N. Ridley JSBRAS 53: 49–127. Read on JSTOR
  11. Hamilton A.W (1933). A Malay garden. With botanical determinations. R.E. Holttum JMBRAS 11(2): 139–143.
  12. H.N. Ridley (1899). Golden flowers JSBRAS 32: 214–215.
  13. H.N. Ridley (1912). Some plants collected on Mr. Moulton’s expedition to Batu Lawi JSBRAS 63: 59–60.