392 A TROPICAL BOTANIC GARDEN. 



onl}' a small number of plants could endure a jieriod of almost con- 

 tinuous drou<^bt for 4 or 5 months, such as is habitual to the east 

 of Java. Even the climate of Batavia, where 2 or 3 months without 

 heavj' rains are not rare, would be less suitable for a botanic garden 

 than Buitenzorg, where they complain if in the middle of the dry sea- 

 son, rain is absent for 3 consecutive weeks. These frequent and 

 heavy rains are doubly advantageous for the garden ; Buitenzorg owes 

 to them its ever luxuriant vegetation (never ceasing, as one may say), 

 and they cause a lowering of the mean temperature which makes it 

 possible to cultivate many i)lant8 from the virgin forests of the moun- 

 tains, although the altitude of Buitenzorg is only 280 metres [1*00 feet]. 

 In order to give an idea of the mass of water which is ordinarily shed 

 upon the ^'' Sans SoucV of Java,* it will be sufticient to say that at 

 Buitenzorg there falls a mean quantity of 4,600 millimetres |180 inches] 

 of rain per year, while in Holland, one of the most rainy countries of 

 Europe, there falls per year but 660 millimetres [26 inchesj. No set- 

 tled plan was at first adopted, and the archives contain no indication of 

 any kind relative to the earliest management of the garden. We 

 merely know that its founder, Reinwardt, took advantage of many 

 voyages made by him to send plants to Buitenzorg. Yet the first cata- 

 logue of the " Botanic Garden of the State," the name officially adopted, 

 published some months alter the departure of Reinwardt, enumerates 

 only 912 ispecies of plants. Reinwardt returned to Europe in June, 

 1822, to occupy a chair in the University of Leyden. Upon his recom- 

 mendation the Government placed at the head of the garden a botanist 

 of exceptional merit. Dr. C. L. Blume, who thus became the first director 

 of the ''■Ilortus Bofforicnsis,''^ and whose scientific renown was cradled 

 in the garden at Buitenzorg. Blume displayed a remarkable activity 

 as director. He commenced in 1825 the publication of a work upon 

 the flora of Dutch India; with a feverish activity he brought out dur- 

 ing 1825 and the early part of 1826, seventeen parts, describing more 

 than 1,200 new species, a great number of genera, and several families 

 of plants entirely unknown up to that time. The garden profited 

 directly from the work of Blume, because the collection of living plants 

 was enriched by a numerous series of species discovered by him. On 

 the other hand, Blume succeeded in attaching to the garden, besides a 

 considerable force and the two chief gardeners, a third European gar- 

 dener, and a draftsman. In short, the young institution came out 

 brilliantly in every respect, and it seemed to promise a remarkable 

 future. A cruel reverse however soon proved the uncertainty of these 

 favorable i)rognostIcations. Blume, after having nearly broken down, 

 had to return to Europe in 1826, to re-establish his health. Almost at 

 the same time Baron Van der Capellen was re-placed by the Viscount 



*[Tbci litenvl translatiou of the word Buitenzorg is without (beyond) care.] 

 \ Tlortua Bogoricnsis, the scientific name of the garden, in derived from Bogor, the 

 native name of Buitenzorg. 



