Seifriz: Plants on Mt. Gedeh, Java 305 



Within the confines of the huge old crater of Gedeh there 

 occurs, in addition to the present semi-active crater, another 

 small, secondary but extinct crater which harbors a flora all its 

 own. This little plant community owes its existence to its 

 well protected situation and to the abundance of water which 

 drains into it from the summit of Gedeh. Here, on the bottom 

 of the small crater pit, there is a rank growth of the sedge, 

 Gahnia javanica, scattered in the form of huge hillocks. 



There is probably no tropical mountain rain-forest in the 

 world which possesses a greater wealth of plant life than that at 

 Tjibodas on Mt. Gedeh. I can imagine no walk more delightful 

 and full of interest than from the laboratory at Tjibodas to the 

 crater of Gedeh and the summit of Pangerango. The Tjibodas 

 virgin forest, as compared with other similar regions, presents 

 an outstanding diversity of vegetative types. While, in certain 

 respects, the flora of Java is surpassed by that of Ceylon, and 

 by the vegetation in certain parts of India, in neither case, nor 

 anywhere in the tropics, so far as my knowledge extends, is 

 there within so limited and so readily accessible a region such a 

 multiplicity of genera and such extremes of plant forms — a 

 thousand or more species— from bananas to edelweiss. 



I wish to express my indebtedness to Dr. C. A. Backer of the 

 Buitenzorg Herbarium for his kindness in identifying many 

 plants collected by me. Without Dr. Backer's generous as- 

 sistance so complete a description of the vegetative zones as is 

 here given would not have been possible. 



