78 A NATURALISrS WANDERINGS 



profuse abundance, massed in clusters in every stage of growth ; 



and 



rent brilliant liues by wliich. rich orange changes into the 

 sombre chades of purple, the effect against the background of 

 the tree-stem and of its own singularly chaste foliage is strik- 

 ing in the extreme, and is one of these objects that the eye can 



meet 



The highest mountain in tliis neighbourhood attains an 

 elevation of nearly 5000 feet, and for the last 500 yards of its 

 ascent presented many interesting features. In producing 

 plants rarely found at so low an elevation on higher moun- 

 tains, the Javan flora en the pure volcanic clay differs from 

 that where the soil is more overlaid with forest humus. 

 Two ferns, a species of Gleichenia and the broad-fronded 

 Bli)teris JiorsJieldi—licvQ at its lowest altitudinal limit— pro- 

 fusely coyered the ground ; and, as if stretching their utmost 

 towards the heights where they naturally grow, rhododendrons 

 and a beautiful creeping species of Ericaceae {Gcmltheria 

 rejmis) clothed the tops of the tallest trees. The lemon-scented 

 laurel {Tdranthera eifrata), whose leaves and fruit give out a 

 sweet odour that can be detected a long wav off, grew in 

 clumps ; and its fruits, a favourite food of the Bulbuls and 

 the Bell-birds, retain their perfume even after they have been 

 dropped by these birds. 



At the summit pitcher-plants {Nepenthes ijhjllampliora) 

 appeared m profusion, climbing up the trees and running 

 over the ground among the moss, out of which peeped the 

 delicate bright star-like flowers of the Aqrostemma monfamim, 

 which always reminded me of the pretty European Chickweed 

 \^ inter-green {Trientalis europma) of our northern wood_. 

 On one of the lower knolls I found perhaps the most in- 

 teresting plant in my Javan collection, a species of Petriea 

 (P. arhorea), growing entirely wild in the forest. This genus, 

 belonging to the family of the Verlenacete, is almost entirclv 

 confined to tlie South American continent; and it is o'f 

 extreme interest to find it, in this inexplicable way, cropping 

 up in a region so far removed from the centre of its distribu- 

 tion. A species from the island of Timor occurs, without 

 history, in the collection in the British Museum made by 



JVIi. Robert Brnun • Vkiit 4K<iDi^ o^^ +1,^ i„ *.„„ i-_ 



s. 



