396 A TROPICAL BOTANIC GARDEN. 



There is here offered a wide field for iuterestiug observations. Includ- 

 ing herbaceous plants, the total number of species is about 9,000. In 

 the middle of the garden there is a range of nurseries where young 

 plants are cultivated, partly under shelters that protect them from the 

 heat of the sun or from the injurious effect of beating rains. Some 

 plants require special care, notably a certain number of ferns, arums, 

 and orchids. These are placed in two buildings that resemble the hot- 

 houses of Europe, with the difference, however, that at Biiitenzorg they 

 serve to keep the plants cool and not to give tliem a more elevated tem- 

 perature. The garden has its own carpenters who construct buildings 

 of this sort; a small detail which will give an idea of the scale upon 

 which everything is organized. The native force is composed of about 

 100 individuals, among whom are 3 employes having si)ecial knowledge 

 of botany, much more than we would expect to find among Malays. 

 This force works under the orders of a chief gardener and a second 

 gardener. The garden is open night and day, an arrangement which is 

 only x)ossible iu the East where they are not yet sufficiently advanced 

 to consider that property is robbery. At the two principal entrances 

 there are gate-keepers but no gates. 



The agricultural garden, the second division of the Horfus Bogori- 

 ensis, is situated about a league from the center of Buitenzorg and cov- 

 ers not less than 70 hectares [173 acres]. The arrangement of the place 

 and the distribution of the plants at once shows that the aim is ex- 

 clusively practical. Everything is regular, the roads and foot- paths 

 intersecting at right angles, the divisions thus formed of almost uniform 

 size, the plants in each division all of the same species and the same 

 age. While in the scientific division each species is represented by but 

 two specimens of each species, here there are a hundred, but only cul- 

 tivated plants that are or may become useful to agriculture or colo- 

 nial industries ; the different species and varieties of coffee, of tea, of 

 sugar-cane, of rubber and gutta-percha trees, the Urythroxylon Coca 

 which furnishes cocaine, trees which produce tannin and oils, forage 

 plants, etc. A special part of the garden is reserved for officinal 

 plants. There is a gardener-iuchief to direct the work, and a force of 

 70 native workmen. 



The third garden is found at a considerable distance from Buitenzorg 

 on one of the slopes of the neighboring volcano of Gede. With an area 

 of 30 hectares [74 acres], at an altitude of 1,500 metres [5,000 feet], it 

 l)0ssesses a climate marvelously adapted for the cultivation of plants 

 of the indigenous mountain flora, as well as those of Australia and 

 Japan. About 10 natives work there under the orders of a European 

 gardener. The three gardens which together constitute the State 

 Botanic Garden at Buitenzorg have a total area of nearly 140 hectares 

 [340 acres]. 



The museum, situated opposite the botanic garden proper, is a build- 

 ing 44 metres long [144 feet], specially constructed for the purpose to 



