LETTERS FROM JAMES MOTLEY, ESQ. 19 
to the Government Natural History staff, and was with Van Siebold 
for a long time in Japan, of which his reminiscences are very interest- 
ing: he is a botanist too as well as a zoologist, so we get on famously. 
When here before, having to remain six weeks, I took the opportunity of 
going up to the mountains. I first spent several days at the Botanic 
Garden at Buitenzorg: the sub-curator, Mr. Bennendyk, is a good bo- 
tanist, and was very kind indeed, in showing me everything. I had the 
opportunity of seeing the new Rafflesia (Brugmansia) Zippelii in spirits, 
and of examining fresh fruit of 4zo//a and Salvinia, and of studying a 
noble collection of Orchids and Palms ; of the latter the collection is very 
numerous; but though I knew sixty at Labuan, I only recognized about a 
dozen of them here. How many Palms exist in these wonderful countries, 
who shall say? After seeing the garden, I made a trip into the moun- 
tains, remaining nearly a week at Ivegoe, about 4000 feet above the 
sea. I think, had you been with me, you would have almost gone crazy, 
as I did, at the Cryptogams : every tree, from leaf to branch, was covered 
with Mosses, Hepatic, and Lichens, to say nothing of Orchids and 
Ferns; no words can express the beauty of the jungle. The most pro- 
ductive places, however, I found to be the old coffee-plantations, where 
the scrubby crooked trees were almost borne to the ground by the weight 
of parasites : here a great epiphytal Ficus or Fagrea mounted on high, 
far thicker and stronger than its supporter; and there asperfect blaze 
of scarlet Aschynanthus, streaming down from the huge matted tufts 
of Asplenium or Acrostichum, ship-loads of Vanda speciosa and odo- 
ratissima, Saccolabia, Dendrobia, Ephippia, any one of which would 
have carried off all the prizes at Chiswick, and sent all the gardeners 
into fits; and in every damp hollow, groves of Dicksonias, Alsophila, 
and Marattig, some rising forty or fifty feet, whose marvellous ele- 
gance and beauty, when swept by the wind, neither pen nor pencil 
can tell. Aroidee are in great force, and of very various forms, as are 
also parasitical Rhododendra, Thibaudie, and such plants. Melastoma- 
cec are very prevalent here, especially the genus Medinilla: most of — 
them are semi-parasitic trailing plants, and hang in great masses from 
the trunks of the trees. But the Mosses and Hepatice enticed me — 
most, for these I could collect; while it was impossible, in my hurried : 
trip, to dry other plants. Some of the pendent Hepatice and Neckere — 
are a foot or more long, and the effect of large masses of them is most — 
beautiful, especially intermixed as they are with long bunches of a 
