Botanical Notices from Java, 478 



some isolated specimens are still met with here and there, we saw a 

 quantity of ant-paths, formed of a brownish earth. They lead up to 

 the nests, which are seen hanging in shapeless brown clumps at a 

 great height on the stems. On the limit of the cofFee-plantations, 

 which we soon reached, grows in freshly turned-up soil a small 

 Balsamina ; but frequent above all Ageratum conyzoides, which was 

 here not higher than two to six inches, and so dense that the whole 

 district appeared coloured bluish by its heads of flowers. 



We now entered the dark shade of the primitive forests, and hung 

 our barometers on the next tree (Dr. Forsten his Engelfield's baro- 

 meter, and I my Fortin's), which gave for the forest-limit a height 

 of 4590 feet, consequently a vertical space for the cofFee-plantations 

 from Bodjong-Keton to this spot of 1376 feet. As we proceeded we 

 found the moist soil of the wood, which was covered with mosses 

 and lycopodiums, ornamented with a beautiful little plant, which 

 grows here in plenty, and discovers itself readily by its azure-blue 

 flowers and the purple under surface of its leaves as Scutellaria 

 indica, L. 



Rasamalas had disappeared on the limits of the cofFee-plantations, 

 and with them the tree-ferns {Chnoophora glauca). In their place 

 numerous trees, belonging to the family of the Laurels (^LaurirKE)^ 

 now occurred, but above all chestnuts, oaks, and Schima Noronhcey 

 among which Fagrceee were also still seen. Their trunks were in- 

 deed less gigantic than those of the Rasamalas, but they are more 

 thickly overgrown with Orchidece and ferns, more luxuriantly en- 

 twined with species of Freycineticd and Calamus, more frequently 

 coated with numerous nest-ferns, and thus form a very shady and 

 dark wood. In this wood grows solitarily, difFering in this respect 

 from the allied Acacia, Acacia Saltuum, Jgh., a slender little tree 

 with almost pyramidal crowns and branches, which originate at dif- 

 ferent heights one above another, at the upper end of the trunk, and 

 extend in an almost horizontal direction. A peculiar disease and 

 protuberance of their leaf-petioles, which change into brownish ex- 

 crescences, called to mind the beautiful Inga montana, Jgh. 



Between the stems of the trees, overtopping the lower shrubs, 

 which are composed of hundreds of difFerent species, and fill up all 

 the intervening space, is seen the Areca glandiformis , Willd., the 

 little stems of which, hung with scarlet berries, notwithstanding 

 their smallness, still exhibit the slender majesty of their family. 



But, besides isolated Orchidece, the ground in the woods is adorned 

 by a small white-blossomed Solanum (S. Rhinozerotis, Bl. }), Bego- 

 nia repanda, Bl. En. 1. p. 97; Polygonum corymhosum, Willd., the 

 form of whose leaf varies remarkably ; several species of Strobi- 

 lanthes, with knotty-jointed upright stems, and above all Ardisia 

 coccinea, Jgh., whose little stem, scarcely tliree feet high, but woody 

 and straight, bears round berries, of the most glowing scarlet. All 

 the stalks of these plants rise out of dense beds of mosses, among 

 which two tree-shaped ones, similar to our Leskea dendroides, seve- 

 ral inches tall, especially catch the eye {Br yum ferrugineum, Jgh.), 

 and a sterile undetermined species with a little stalk four inches 



Ann. ^' Mag. N. Hist. Vol. xvii. Suppl 2 K 



