Botanical Notices from Java. 331 



wood which rises on the other side of the small river : — A young 

 bamboo-bush, crisp and round, borders the water's edge ; then are 

 seen upon a dark ground the light green of the gigantic Pisang- 

 leaves, which rise up from their spongy stems and are slowly moved 

 by the gentle breezes. Behind these the view is closed by the inter- 

 woven foliage of the trees, among which are distinguished by their 

 brilliant foliage numerous species of Citrus, — the Artocarpus incisa 

 by its large serrated leaves, and Bomhax pentandrum by its horizontal 

 branches ; among these rises up the bluish green foliage of the Areng- 

 palm ; but all these trees are surmounted by the crowns of the cocoa- 

 palms, whose gray stems, covered with lichens, rise perpendicularly 

 out of the dark arborescence, and majestically overtop with their lofty 

 summits the rounded foliage of the other trees. Golden fruit, as 

 large as gourds, glitter among their long feathery branches, which 

 rustle gently in the wind. 



In the woods and plantations of -this kind there remain here and 

 there small open spaces and irrigated rice-fields, lying in the lovely 

 enameled fields pf young grass ; here the Pontederia vaginalis unfolds 

 its azure blossoms. The streets in the town and the arid grass-plots, 

 which occur here and there among the houses, are overgrown with 

 the weeds of species of Sida (S. acuta, retusa, elongata, &c.), by Urena 

 lobata, by some Compositse, also by species of Mercurialis, Celosia, 

 Achyranthes, and by Portulaca oleracea, L. ; between which are here 

 and there hidden upon sandy and stony places the small Portulaca 

 quadrifida, C. In fertile spots, on the borders of the ditches, is found 

 the Heliotropium indicum. The small bushes which above Welte- 

 vreden enliven by their green the margin of «ome rivulets, consist of 

 species of Psidium and Melastoma Malabathricum ; with which are 

 mingled the Mussmnda glabra, V., whose fiery yellow blossoms and 

 milk-white yellow calycine bracts attract the eye of the traveller. 

 [The author here only refers to those plants which characterize 

 the physiognomy of the country and attract attention from their 

 masses.] Woods, properly so called, are no longer found in the im- 

 mediate environs of Batavia ; but we meet with them on the moist, 

 inhospitable sea-shore (even at Anjol), stretching along a great por- 

 tion of the north coast. 



What the author says of the occurrence of the Fungi in the tro- 

 pics (p. 99) is interesting : They appear under the tropics to be 

 limited to no fixed season of the year. The difference between the 

 temperature in the wet and dry half-year is very small, at least in 

 the mountains, where also in the dry season frequent rains fall. 

 Heat, the first impulse of production of all vegetable life, is there- 

 fore always present ; moisture of the ground, the second thing of 

 importance which the formation of spongy plants requires, also ob- 

 tains from year to year in these primjeval forests, whose thick foliage 

 is never penetrated by the sun's rays. The rich, brown soit, abound- 

 ing in humus, is always soaked and loose and spongy ; the watery 

 particles of the atmosphere, which are precipitated by the coolness 

 at night, and the amount of the exhalated carbonated water, moisten 

 with their dew-drops all the leaves, so that a person can scarcely go 



