Abstract
MR. H. N. RIDLEY, the well-known Malayan botanist and director of the Gardens, Straits Settlements, 1888–1911, was eighty years of age on December 10, 1935, and Part 1 of vol. 9 of The Gardens' Bulletin (Govt. Printing Office, Singapore, Dec. 20, 1935) has been dedicated to him. Mr. Ridley did more than any other individual to add to the knowledge of the flora of the Malay Peninsula: his “Flora” is the foundation for all later work. It was in rubber that perhaps his greatest economic work was done. He strongly advocated the plantation of Para rubber, and it is said that his pioneer tapping experiments were largely responsible for the foundation of that industry, upon which so large a share of the wealth of Malaya has rested. He also took up the study of minor products, both agricultural and forest, and reported on timbers, rattans and other products about which there was little original information extant. According to the Bulletin, Mr. Ridley during sixty-three years of activity published more than five hundred books, papers and notes.
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Mr. H. N. Ridley, C.M.G., F.R.S.. Nature 137, 486 (1936). https://doi.org/10.1038/137486a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/137486a0