232 RELATION BETWEEN CLIMATE AND VEGETATION 



brandies, and flocks of gay-coloured birds enliven tlie scene. 

 Only a few species of fig, chiefly of the yellow-leaved low- 

 growing kinds, rise liigh up the mountains, diminisliingin size as 

 they ascend. But among the great mass of the species, innu- 

 merable other forms are mingled. Great numbers of Meliads, 

 Ebenads, Sterculias, Soap-berries, Caryotas, and Artocarpads re- 

 semble each other in the vigorous growtli, height, and thickness 

 of their stems, in the intervals between which stand crowds of 

 herbaceous plants and shrubs, sucii as Ardisias, Grewias, Elseo- 

 carps, Phyllanths, Saururi, Ruellias, Justicias, Dimocarps, Sa- 

 lanums, Scitamineous plants, Arads, and Orcliids ; while the 

 great parasitical kinds of Aralia, Vines, Uranias, Peppers, Cyr- 

 tandras, Pothoses, and Loranths weave the whole together. 



At a higher elevation, but within narrower limits, stands tlie 

 beautiful and conspicuous Rasamala forest, which is more espe- 

 cially remarkable in the western mountains of Java. It derives 

 its name from an indigenous tree which seems to belong to the 

 genus Liquidambar, and furnishes a Storax. Noronha described 

 it under the name of Altingia excelsa. Its beautiful tall, 

 straight, whitish trunk, less overgrown than those of the fig- 

 trees, and witli a more regular head of light green foliage, marks 

 the wooded region, which receives its character from this useful 

 tree. Thick thorny buslies, many kinds of Calamus, and a great 

 variety of Cinchonaceous plants, remarkable for their peculiar 

 and powerful exhalations, which are perceived at a distance, form 

 the copsewood of this aromatic forest. 



At an elevation of 3000 feet we leave the Rasamala forest. 

 Here the Coniferous tribe appears in all its beauty in the 

 Kimarak, which is not only the most beautiful of Podocarps, 

 but is one of the finest trees which the southern hemisphere 

 produces, rising majestically to a considerable height, with its 

 straight stem towering above the other forest trees, which are 

 now beginning to appear of smaller stature. Its neighbour and 

 relative the Dammar Pine rises near it, requiring similar phy- 

 sical conditions under wliich to develope. These trees do not, 

 however, stand so bare and isolated as our own fir trees ; on the 

 contrary, they allow other plants to grow near them, the spaces 

 between being occupied by beautiful Rhododendrons, and many 

 varieties of Fern, The singular Pitcher-plant here hangs down 

 from the lofty branches, and the broad and elegantly-divided 

 fronds of a beautiful Fern, the Dipteris, rise upon their slender 

 stems. This elevated situation is more particularly characterized 

 by the different kinds of Laurels, which here predominate. 

 Java is especially rich in Laurels, as well as in Figs ; these, 

 with some Eugenias and other Myrtaceous plants, with a very 

 large Gardenia, perpetually in flower, cover everywhere the 



