Chap. Ill] TROPICAL WOODLAND AND GRASSLAND 263 



tions of sugar-canes. Cultivated trees are frequently met with in both localities. 

 The country round Buitenzorg (rainfall 499 cm.), Malang (450 cm.), Tjilatjap (463 cm.) 

 is also bare of forest-growth, but trees planted there show the greatest vigour. 

 Near Depok (334 cm.) some forest is retained, but is not very luxuriant. It is well 

 known that Borneo and Sumatra are completely under forest. Of 22 stations in 

 Sumatra, only one, Kota Badja, has a rainfall of less than 200 cm. (175 cm.). On the 

 other hand, four stations have more than 400 cm. The seven stations given for 

 Borneo all have more than 200 cm., some of them more than 300 cm. Celebes, 

 except its south coast (Kema 163 cm.), the Moluccas, except Timor (145 cm.), and 

 Sumbawa (109 cm.), have just as heavy a rainfall as have the larger islands. Of 

 Timor, Forbes says l , ' I can scarcely say that we had any true forest, for the trees 

 rarely entwined their crowns overhead and the ground was covered with sparse 

 grass sufficient to give it a park-like look.' This description corresponds to the 

 picture of a typical savannah-forest. 



New Guinea, according to the present scanty data, does not appear inferior as 

 regards rainfall to the Malayan islands. Thus for Hatzfeldhafen, 248 cm., for Con- 

 stantinhafen, 296 cm., for Finschhafen, 2S8 cm. are given 2 . 



The peninsula of Malacca also has probably a similar rainfall. Singapore, on 

 a small island separated from the peninsula by a narrow arm of the sea, has an 

 annual rainfall of 240 cm. The island has been deforested except for an eminence, 

 on which the rainfall may be even greater. Trees planted anywhere in the island 

 show a very luxuriant growth. Kwala Lumpor, in the State of Selangor, on the 

 peninsula itself, has an annual rainfall of 243 cm. 



The precipitations in the Malayan forest-district are nowhere uniformly 

 distributed throughout the year, but a wet season (in summer) and a dry 

 one (in winter) may be distinguished, or even two rainy seasons. The 

 difference between the seasons is sometimes greater and sometimes less, 

 but never so marked as in Cis-gangetic India : — 



DISTRIBUTION OF THE RAINFALL IN PERCENTAGES OF THE TOTAL 

 ANNUAL RAINFALL IN THE MALAY ARCHIPELAGO. 

 (After Woeikof.) 



The other tropical districts with high-forest have rainfalls similar to that 



of the Malay district. Thus in Asia: Rangoon, 250 cm. ; Colombo, 222 



cm. ; Kandy, 212 cm. ; Ratnapura (Ceylon), 384 cm. ; Mahabaleshwar in the 



Western Ghats, 723 cm. (according to Woeikof, 657 cm.) ; Mangalore, 



1 Forbes, op. cit., p. 422. 2 Meteorol. Zeitschr., 1S91, p. 277. 



