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NATURAL HISTORY OF THE INDO-MALAY ISLANDS.
IN the first CHAPTER of this work I have stated generally the reasons which lead us to conclude that the large islands in the western portion of the Archipelago--Java, Sumatra, and Borneo--as well as the Malay peninsula and the Philippine islands, have been recently separated from the continent of Asia.

I now propose to give a sketch of the Natural History of these, which I term the Indo-Malay islands, and to show how far it supports this view, and how much information it is able to give us of the antiquity and origin of the separate islands.
The flora of the Archipelago is at present so imperfectly known, and I have myself paid so little attention to it, that I cannot draw from it many facts of importance.

The Malayan type of vegetation is however a very important one; and Dr.Hooker informs us, in his "Flora Indica," that it spreads over all the moister and more equable parts of India, and that many plants found in Ceylon, the Himalayas, the Nilghiri, and Khasia mountains are identical with those of Java and the Malay peninsula.

Among the more characteristic forms of this flora are the rattans--climbing palms of the genus Calamus, and a great variety of tall, as well as stemless palms.