204 Voyage of the Novara. 



where in the East, accompanying each coach, who are inces- 

 santly on and off the waggon, yelling and cracking their 

 long whips at the horses to keep them to their speed. About 

 every five paals, or 4f miles (English), the cattle and the 

 runners are changed, so that an unvarying S23eed is attained. 

 All along the roads stretches the telegraphic wire, which 

 unites Batavia in one direction with Angier (75 miles) and 

 Surabaya (543 miles).* The wood of which each post is 

 constructed is the Kapok tree, a species of Gossypium, or 

 cotton tree, and here for the first time we saw the slender, 

 tightly-strained wires suspended on the stem of a luxuriant 

 green tree. Thus, if the experiment succeeds, the elsewhere 

 naked, dead telegraph-poles will here be made at once 

 useful and productive, as each post that supports the wire 

 will produce a small quantity of cotton. 



Buitenzorg possesses one of the finest and most ex- 

 tensive botanical gardens in the world. It was laid out 

 as far back as 1817, during the vice-royalty of Baron van 

 Capellen. The distribution of the various orders is con- 

 trived equally to assist and promote the instruction of the 

 general observer, and to accustom tlie naturalist to the phe- 

 nomena of Eastern vegetation. Each order of plants has 

 its own area. The various species of palms are the most 

 extensively represented, and there is scarcely one of the 



* As yet there are no railroads on the island. But a company has been formed 

 with the intention of uniting the more important and productive districts of the 

 island, an enterprise which will extend to about 1000 miles (Enghsh), and will cost 

 about £8,500,000. 



