Botany of the Riukiu (Loochoo) Islands

Abstract

WITHIN the last score of years much light has been thrown upon our knowledge of the flora of Japan. We still, however, know little about the flora of the groups of islands which lie scattered off the coast of her southern boundary. It is true that some botanical collections made during the last few years have shown a certain insight into the flora of some of the archipelago known as the Riukiu or Loochoo Islands, but it is equally true that most of the islands remain as yet absolutely uninvestigated. Since careful studies of the materials, both literature and specimens, scanty as they are, have shown that the flora of the Riukiu Islands form obviously the connecting link between that of Japan, on the one hand, and, on the other, those of South-Eastem China and the Indo-Malayan region through the islands of Hong Kong and Formosa, it seems necessary to take a clear view of the flora of the Riukiu Islands where the boundary lines of those of the two above main regions overlap. Hence it may be worth while to offer a brief summary of our present knowledge of the flora of the Riukiu Islands, taken not only from the materials already presented to the scientific world, but also from those works which have been brought out by the hands of native botanists of Eastern Asia, which have not yet been accessible to most of the Western men of science.