In an era when probably more journals are being published around the world than ever before and the number continues to increase almost hourly, there is probably a certain moral obligation to explain and perhaps to justify another journal. It is the intent of this editorial, and the hope of the editors, that the justification is sufficient.
(This is the first paragraph. There is no abstract.)

On November 30, 1960, Typhoon Ophelia struck Ulithi, an atoll in the southwest Pacific, leaving the island groups a mass of devastation. It was the worst tropical cyclone to strike the atoll since 1907, when a similar catastrophe laid waste the land, but Ophelia differed from this earlier typhoon in being perhaps less intense in surface wind speed and much more violent in the wave action it churned up, resulting in severe damage to nearly all beaches and inundation of the interior of Falapop Island. Moreover, over half a century of change had rendered the human circumstances different.
(This is the first paragraph. There is no abstract)

For more than a century visitors to the island of Ponape in the Eastern Carolines have engaged in mystified speculation about the megalithic ruins of Nan Matol (also spelled Nan Matal, etc.) on the east coast of the island. The writings of the German ethnographer Paul Hambruch constitute the fullest and most authoritative discussion of the ruins to date. Hambruch did ethnographic fieldwork on Ponape in 1910, and spent part of his time surveying and investigating the ruins as well. In his reports he also reviews much of the early literature on them as well as presenting his own findings (1911, 1936).
(This is the first paragraph. There is no abstract.)

The present paper is a comparative and familial analysis of finger ridge counts of the right hand only. The data come from finger prints of a sample of Micronesian males from Yap, in the Western Caroline Islands. As shown previously, the palm and finger prints of the Yapese resemble most closely those of other Pacific islanders and mainlanders from Southeast Asia (Mavalwala and Hunt, 1964; Swindler, Mavalwala and Hunt, 1963). The dermatoglyphic affinities of the Yapese agree well with their position as deduced from anthropometry (Hunt, 1950a, 1950b). Within Yap itself, the population is divided into three largely endogamous castes which are slightly differentiated in size, physique, and dermatoglyphic features.
(This is the first paragraph. There is no abstract.)

The Cyperaceae of Micronesia includes 67 species of 13 genera. These consist of Pacific, Malaysian and Pantropic elements in almost equal proportions. Based on a review of all major collections concerned, these species are enumerated with taxonomic discussion, and keys to genera and species are provided . In addition to numerous nomenclatural revisions the following new names and new combinations are proposed: Mapania pandanophylla ssp. immensa, Mapania flavinux, Mapania parvibractea, Hypolytrum nemorum ssp. vitiense, Scirpus littoralis ssp. thermalis, Eleocharis congesta ssp. subvivipara, Fimbristylis cymosa ssp. umbellato-capitata, Fimbristylis cymosa ssp. spathacea, Fimbristylis dichotoma ssp. podocarpa, Machaerina mariscoides ssp. colpodes, Schoenus tendo ssp. achaetus, Rhynchospora rugosa ssp. lavarum forma ponapensis, and Carex brunnea ssp. Meyenii.

Efficiency of dispersal and adaptability have been described by Ridley (1) as the two factors which determine the survival of a species.
Guppy (2) has shown that longevity of seeds combined with buoyancy in seawater is responsible for the wide distribution of a large group of species on the coasts of all Pacific islands . The presence of this coastal flora partly accounts for the remarkable sameness in the vegetation of low cora l islands and atolls throughout the entire Pacific region.
The elevated islands, however, often provide special ecological niches for endemic and rare flora. The island of 'Eua in the Tonga Group is an example .
(This is the first three paragraphs. There is no absract.)

"The Useful Plants of the Island of Guam", by William Edwin Safford, published by the Smithsonian Institution (Contributions from the U.S. National Herbarium, U.S. National Museum, vol. IX, pp. 1-416, pl. 1-69, 1 map) in 1905, is one of the few botanical works dealing with Guam, and is still a basic document in the field. Besides the botanical information, it is particularly interesting for the wealth of collated historical, ethnological, and other data, which makes up the first half of the book. The second half is an alphabetized list of plant names, in which scientific and common names (English, Guamanian, Filipino, Panamanian, and Samoan) occur.
(This is the first paragraph. There is no abstract.)

The establishment of the College of Guam Herbarium has stimulated a considerable amount of collecting in Guam, and this in addition to the study visits to the island made by Dr. F. R. Fosberg has yielded a number of new records for the island flora. Many of the species here recorded are introduced plants, some accidental and some deliberate, but some clearly native species have also been discovered. The latter are especially evident among the lower cryptogams, which have been very poorly or not at all studied in Guam, although several new records of native tracheophytes are also at hand .
(This is the first paragraph. There is no abstract.)

The brachyuran decapod crustaceans of the Marshall Islands have been reviewed by Balss (1938) and by Miyake (1938, 1939). These reports stem from the German and Japanese occupations, respectively, the former being the result of the Pacific Expedition of Dr. Sixten Bock, 1917-1918, the latter the result of the Micronesia Expedition of Prof. Teiso Esaki, 1937-1938. According to Fosberg (1956, p. 1), Jaluit Atoll was the headquarters of both the German and the Japanese administrations, a fact that accounts for the preponderance of records from the southern Marshall Islands. Additional coverage of the southern Marshalls was provided by the 1950 Arno Atoll Expedition of the Coral Atoll Program of the Pacific Science Board, the decapod crustaceans collected by Dr. R. W. Hiatt having been reported by Holthuis (1953). Carcinologically speaking, the northern Marshalls are less well known, collections having been made only at Likieb Atoll by both Dr. Bock and Prof. Esaki and at Kwajalein Atoll by Prof . Esaki alone. Except for the shrimps, reported by Chace (1955), the extensive collections made in connection with Operation Crossroads in 1946-1947, which included Bikini, Rongelap, Rongerik, and Eniwetok atolls (Fosberg, 1956, p. 4), are at the U.S. National Museum awaiting study.
(This is the first paragraph. There is no abstract.)

The gobioid fishes allied to Taenioides were recognized by Koumans (1953) as constituting a distinct family, the Taenioididae, distinguished from the Gobiidae by the presence of a single long dorsal fin and small to indistinct eyes. Although its rank may be questioned, it appears that this is a natural group of closely related genera . Koumans recognized two subgroups, the Trypaucheninae, which have a small cavity above the gill chamber, and the Taenioinae, which do not . Taenioidid gobys are elongate, nearly blind fishes that live in the lower reaches of streams. The form described here appears to be the first known from the Marianas Islands since Taenioides gertrudae Fowler from Guam is not a goby according to Koumans (1940, p. 157).
(This is the first paragraph. There is no abstract.)

Crocodiles have long been known to be dangerous to man. However, they are fortunately confined to rather remote parts of the world and as a consequence their activities receive little publicity and attacks are infrequently recorded.

A fisherman who was fortunate enough to survive such an attack was recently admitted to the hospital on Palau with wounds received from such a marine crocodile (Crocodilus porosus) while he was fishing at night. These crocodiles are common in the Palau Islands which are located about 400 miles north of New Guinea at 7 N. Latitude and 134 E. Longitude. The largest of several hundred islands in this group and the largest in the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands is Babelthaop which is approximately 25 miles long, 8 miles wide, is sparsely inhabited, and has many rivers running island for considerable distances.
(This is the first two paragraph.There is no abstract.)

Ophioglossum pendulum L. was reported from a number of Pacific Islands by St. John (Bishop Mus. Occ. Pap. 17: 177-182, 1943), but was omitted from the Marshall Islands, although a dubious record from Mille (Mili) Atoll was mentioned. St. John remarks that the species is unknown on the atolls and low coral islands of Micronesia, and the Mili Atoll record was passed over on the basis of probable error. It is now possible to substantiate the Marshall Islands record, although by different atolls. This however makes probable, rather than improbable, the Mili Atoll record. The species was collected in Namorik Atoll, Marshall Islands, by the writer in 1956; the specimen (Stone 997) is deposited in the Bishop Museum. The same species was also collected on nearby Ebon Atoll, but was lost along with a large bundle of specimens from Ebon, which were dropped in a loading accident. However, independent observation of the species on Ebon is provided by Dr. Richard S. Cowan, who was in Ebon some ten years earlier. Unfortunately no specimens were collected by him. Ebon and Namorik are the southernmost atolls of the Marshalls group, in a region much wetter than the northern atolls. Mili is a relatively short distance away. The vegetation is lush for an atoll in this area, and contains a number of plants which require high humidity and abundant rainfall, such as Peperomia, Procris pedunculata, and Vittaria elongata. The distribution of Ophioglossum pendulum should thus be revised to include two and perhaps three atolls of the Marshall Islands.
(This is the first paragraph. There is no abtract.)

This essay represents the most recent, and probably the most important, of Maude's contributions to the ethnography of the Gilbert Islands. The author has summarized and interpreted a great deal of previously unpublished data , most of it collected by himself and by the well-known Sir Arthur Grimble, one of his predecessors as Resident Commissioner of the Gilbert and Ellice Islands Colony. Maude's work makes available a body of material that can no longer be collected in the field, since many of the practices he describes were abandoned long ago, and since even the old men who informed him and Grimble about pre-Christian customs are now gone. Our knowledge of the structure of many Polynesian societies remains ambiguous because similar accounts do not exist for them.
(This is the first paragraph. There is no abstract.)

In the minds of many persons concerned with the future and the progress of Micronesia, anthropology is associated with a vague conspiracy to keep things as they are. It is fortunate, therefore, at this time, that "Cooperation in Change" has been published. Dr. Goodenough has presented a consistent and coherent synthesis of current theory in anthropology as it applies to communit y development. No attempt is made to present every viewpoint in anthropology, but rather to build a systematic frame of reference, drawing heavily from functional theory, culture, and personality and linguistics.
(This is the first paragraph. There is no abstract.)

In this well written, beautifully printed, and expensive slim volume may be found a careful, full systematic and phytogeographic treatment of the known mosses and liverworts of the Micronesian atolls. There are keys to genera and species, full descriptions, illustrations (with anatomical detail), and maps of distribution , as well as a few habitat photographs.
(This is the first paragraph. There is no abstract.)

In this clearly written, well-illustrated treatment of the woody plants of Taiwan (Formosa), Dr. Li has given the field botanist a splendid introduction to the rich flora of this interesting island and a thoughtful summary of his taxonomic opinions. A geographical and phytogeographical introduction begins the work, in which notes on the topography, soils, climate, vegetation types, forest resources, exploration, and floristic composition are discussed. It is of interest to note that the island of Taiwan contains 48 mountain peaks which exceed 10,000 feet in height!
(This is the first paragrap. There is no abstract.)