2IO Voyage of the Novara. 



traverses the mountain pass of Mengamendoeng, 4925 feet 

 high, an outlier of the Gedeh range. It passes at first 

 through richly-cultivated properties, with splendid rice-crops, 

 and a little further on through coffee-plantations, after which 

 comes uninhabited wilderness, when the road becomes so 

 steej) that a pair of buffalos are harnessed in front of the 

 horses of each carriage. En route we visited at Pondok- 

 Gedeh the beautiful property of the family of Van den Bosch, 

 whose founder greatly distinguished himself in promoting 

 the agricultural pros|)erity of the island, while Governor- 

 general of the colony, 1830 — 33. In the extensive gardens 

 here we saw several large species of Vanilla and Cactus {Nopal)^ 

 the latter of which are devoted to the propagation and gathering 

 of the diminutive cochineal insect, from which is procured such 

 a valuable dye. In 1826, a pair of this very fecund insect 

 were brought from Spain to Java, and at present * there are 

 in Pondok-Gedeh alone 500,000 plants, from which between 

 10,000 and 20,000 pounds of cochineal are obtained annually, 

 while other gardens of Nopal of equal size occur elsewhere 

 throughout the island. AVe were also filled with astonish- 

 ment at the variety and richness of the brushwood and forest 

 trees, which the European is accustomed to see only as di- 

 minutive, tender specimens, the rare plants of a hot-house ! 

 Under the influence of a tropical climate, and a fruitful soil, 

 the tea-plant, the nutmeg, the cinnamon, the sugar-cane, the 



* One can form some idea of the enormous fecundity of this insect, if we mention that 

 it takes 200,000 m a di-ied state to make one pound of the cochineal of commerce. 



