A Vegetation Map of Malesia at Scale 1:5 Million

A vegetation map of Malesia, the festoon of islands from Sumatra to the Bismarcks, is presented on a single sheet, at scale 1: 5 million and using Mercator's projection. 2. Ten different kinds of natural forest, either single Formations or groups of related Formations are depicted. The natural ranges of Pinus spp. are indicated. 3. Deforested areas and the natural swamp grasslands of the Fly and Sepik river valleys are left blank. Thus the extent of deforestation by Man is vividly depicted. 4. Legally constituted conservation areas of 200 km2 and larger are shown. 5. The sources for the map are described and inadequacies discussed. 6. It is concluded that a perfectly accurate map is impossible to make, partly because of inadequate information, partly because of the small scale, but that this flawed effort might stimulate investigations to fill in gaps.