4°6 NATURAL SCIENCE. June, 



It is a very rare thing to see the flowers expanded, and we were 

 not fortunate in this respect, but in some cases the brown bract-like 

 structures which surround the inflorescences had parted on the top so 

 as to expose the flesh-coloured corolla. 2 



After this, through the kindness of Dr. Treub, I spent eight days 

 at the mountain laboratory of Tjibodas, which has been erected 

 within the last two or three years under his direction. It stands on 

 the side of the still active volcano Gedeh, some 1,425 metres above 

 the sea-level. 



There is an extensive area of virgin forest here, which has been 

 granted by the Government to 's Lands Plantentuin, and is now 

 administrated by the well-known horticulturist, Mr. Henry Couperus. 



In the immediate vicinity of the laboratory, a number of exotic 

 trees have been introduced, most noticeable among them being a 

 quantity of Australian conifers, chiefly species of Araucaria. But at 

 this elevation they do not undergo fructification ; they bear cones, but 

 they are quite sterile. Cupressus excelsa (Australia) is the only conifer 

 that bears fruit at Tjibodas. In the same way, cocoa-nut palms do 

 not bear fruit here. On the sides of the pathway leading up to 

 the laboratory are two of the curious Australian grass gum trees 

 [Xanthovvhcea hastilis. Nat. Ord. Liliaceae). 



In the laboratory book at Buitenzorg, I had previously found an 

 entry by Professor Max Weber to the effect that giant earthworms, 

 called by the natives " tjatjing sondari," occurred in the neighbour- 

 hood of Tjibodas, and I gave my chief attention to these during my 

 stay there. 



The giant earthworms that are to be dug up here belong to the 

 family of the Perichaetidse (as, in fact, did all the earthworms I saw 

 in Java). When lying still upon the ground they may measure from 

 eighteen to twenty inches, and when crawling may exceed twenty- 

 five inches, with the girth of a small snake or blindworm. When 

 first taken out of the ground the worms, especially the older ones, 

 exuded a viscous dull greenish-yellow fluid from the dorsal pores in 

 the hinder region only. They may even squirt the fluid up, by violent 

 muscular contraction, to a height of some inches, which is rather an 

 unpleasant fact when one is bending over them. 



Once, while walking through the forest, one of these worms, a 

 young one, dropped from a tree at my feet. On my expressing 

 surprise, my native guide, whose intimate knowledge of bionomics 

 filled me with envy, informed me that the " tjatjing sondari " were 

 also to be found in the mould in which the large epiphytic fern 

 Asplenium nidus, or " kadaka," grows, high up on the trees. On going 

 later to verify this statement, I found it to be perfectly correct. From 

 one kadaka I took three specimens, and from another six, and so on. 



2 For a recent admirable account of the Ramesiaceas cf. H. Graf zu Solms- 

 Laubach " Ueber die Species in der Gattung Rafflesia . . . "in Annates du 

 Jardin hot. de Buitenzorg, vol. ix., 1891. 



