Abstract
DR. A. C. HADDON, F.R.S., recently brought before the research department of the Royal Geographical Society a plea for the investigation of biological and anthropological distributions in Melanesia. The Melanesian islands constitute a fairly well-marked biological province. Many of the islands are of large size, and there is reason to believe that some of these are vestiges of an ancient land-mass that probably became submerged in the Mesozoic period. The islands of Melanesia have yet to be studied from a geomorphological point of view, and their geology is extremely little known. Botanists would welcome a more ample knowledge of the flora of the district as a whole and of particular portions of it, and many problems of plant structure, distribution, and cecology require detailed investigation on the spot. The same remarks apply to zoologists. Botanists and zoologists alike would welcome an opportunity for extensive or intensive study of the systematic distributional or biological problems of plants and animals in Melanesia.
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A Plea for an Expedition to Melanesia . Nature 74, 187–188 (1906). https://doi.org/10.1038/074187b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/074187b0