Batavia and Buitenzoeg. 121 



Batavia agrees very well with Mr. Money's graphic ac- 

 count of it, except that his " clear-canals " were all muddy, 

 and his " smooth gravel-drives " up to the houses were one 

 and* all formed of coarse pebbles, very painful to walk upon, 

 and hardly explained by the fact that in Batavia every body 

 drives, as it can hardly be sujDposed that i^eople never walk 

 in their gardens. The Hotel des Indes was very comfortable, 

 each visitor having a sitting-room and bedroom opening on a 

 veranda, where he can take his morning coffee and afternoon 

 tea. In the centre of the quadrangle is a building contain- 

 ing a number of marble baths always ready for use ; and 

 there is an excellent tahU cVhote breakfast at ten, and dinner 

 at six, for all which thei'e is a moderate charge per day. 



I went by coach to Buitenzorg, forty miles inland and 

 about a thousand feet above the sea, celebrated for its deli- 

 cious climate and its Botanical Gardens. With the latter I 

 was somewhat disappointed. The walks were all of loose 

 pebbles, making any lengthened wanderings about them very 

 tiring and painful under a tropical sun. The gardens are no 

 doubt wonderfully rich in tropical and especially in Malayan 

 plants, but there is a great absence of skillful laying-out ; 

 there are not enough men to keep the place thoroughly in 

 order, and the plants themselves are seldom to be coinpared 

 for luxuriance and beauty to the same species grown in our 

 hot-houses. This can easily be explained. The plants can 

 rarely be placed in natural or very favorable conditions. 

 The climate is either too hot or too cool, too moist or too dry, 

 for a large proportion of them, and they seldom get the exact 

 quantity of shade or the right quality of soil to suit them. In 

 our stoves these varied conditions can be supplied to each indi- 

 vidual plant far better than in a large garden, where the fact 

 that the plants are most of them growing in or near their na- 

 tive country is supposed to preclude the necessity of giving 

 them much individual attention. Still, however, there is 

 much to admire here. There are avenues of stately palms, 

 and clumps of bamboos of perhaps fifty different kinds, and 

 an endless variety of tropical shrubs and trees with strange 

 and beautiful foliage. As a change from the excessive heats 

 of Batavia, Buitenzorg is a delightful abode. It is just ele- 

 vated enough to have deliciously cool evenings and nights. 



