470 Botanical Notices from Java. 



colour exactly resembled those of the north, and imparted an inde- 

 scribable beauty to the country. Pre-eminent in these woods was 

 Quercus pruinosaf Bl., in the underwood of which the Areca glandi- 

 formis, Willd., with its red racemes formed a principal ornament. 

 Blackberry-bushes with red berries, tree-ferns and rotangs were 

 plentiful. Later appeared Laurineee and Thihaudiee. 



Upon the Wilis a number of Javanese gathered <;ofFee-berries 

 upon the ground, and in a heap of faeces, consisting entirely of the 

 beans caked together, which lay scattered about in numerous heaps 

 and in some measure resembling the excrement of the dog. These 

 heaps are deposited by a species of Arctomys (called by the Japa- 

 nese La(w)ak), a kind of otter, which greedily devours the ripe 

 coflfee, and passes the berries undigested ! The Japanese assured 

 our traveller that these berries were the best of all ! 



We must refer to the author's second excursion through the moun- 

 tain-forests of Panggerango, Manellawangie, and Gede, in the year 

 1839, as the most complete description of the vegetation of Java. 

 We shall let the author speak. " I proceeded up hill and down, on 

 horseback along the road which crosses the back of the high table- 

 land, sloping down in a westerly direction, and arrived on the 30th 

 of March, 1839, at ten o'clock, at the spot where I am at present, 

 that is to say, on the N.N.W. declivity of the Panggerango, where, 

 at a height of 321 2 feet, a Passanggrahan (the highest spot in the re- 

 sidence Buitenzorg) is built of planks and bamboos. 



" Next, below the cottage (Bodjong-Keton) the ridge is formed of 

 grass plains, on which are seen grazing numerous horses and cattle, 

 while here and there lie scattered groups of miserable huts. Above 

 this spot is only a dark forest, the limits of which appear to begin 

 here close to the house, although it is next to coiFee-plantations, 

 which, shadowed by Erythrina indica, extend for several paals further, 

 whilst the virgin forests only descend thus far on the side declivities 

 of the ridge and in the unpassable clefts. 



" But throughout, where the coffee cultivation leaves only a small 

 open plot, these ridges are ornamented by a splendid vegetation of 

 tree-ferns (^Chnoophora glauca, BL), whose stems rising from out of 

 the tall grass and bushes, from eighteen to twenty-four feet, form 

 with their leafy covering lovely groups, and are only overtopped 

 here and there by an isolated specimen of a Rasamala (Liquidambar 

 Althingiana, Bl), 150 feet and more. On moist places are seen the 

 large pinnate leaves of species of Amormim and Elettaria, which, 

 from the size and the light freshness of their green, stand next to 

 the Pisang, with which they form luxuriant thickets, rising fifteen 

 to twenty feet and above. 



" As I could not expect the bearers of my luggage to arrive be- 

 fore the afternoon, and it was moreover prudent to send out a num- 

 ber of men to erect a hut on the top of the mountain, I determined 

 not to set out before the 1st of April, but in the interim to visit the 

 woods around Bodjong-Keton, up to a height of about 4500 feet, in 

 which excursions generally five Japanese armed with hatchets ac- 

 companied me. 



