158 PROCEEDIXGS OF THE NATIONAL IIUSEUM. vol. 49. 



GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION. 



The following notes will serve to give some idea of the geographic 

 and topograpliic conditions under which the collection was made. It 

 should bo noted that the name "Pangranggo" is spelled in various 

 ways. Reclus has it "Panggerango," and Wallace "Pangerango." 

 The form adopted in the present paper is the one appearing on the 

 printed insect labels of the collection. 



Gede and Pangranggo. — -The western has a much greater mean elevation than the 

 eastern section of the island, forming a plateau from 2,000 to 3,000 feet high. Here 

 also the mountains are connected by lofty ridges or saddles, the former intervening 

 valleys having been to a great extent filled in by outflows of lavas and showers of 

 ashes and scoriae * * * East of this pass follow the far loftier cones of Gede or the 

 "Great" (9,800 feet) which gives its name to a whole group, and the neighboring 

 Mandala-Wangi which exceeds it by 200 feet. The Gede, properly so called, has 

 frequently ejected scoriae and from its bleached crater, about 4,000 feet in circum- 

 ference, jets of vapor are still emitted; sulphur is also deposited on the encircling 

 walls while copious thermal streams flow from the flanks of the mountain. Gede is 

 connected by a narrow ridge with another and far larger crater which from the Sala 

 wall on the south to Panggerango on the north side has a circuit of about two and a 

 half miles. It is wooded to the summit, terminating in an inclined terrace 

 whence numerous rivulets rapidly converge in a broad stream wliich was till recently 

 visited by the rhinoceros. From this terrace, the highest point of observation in 

 west Java, a panoramic view is commanded of both seas, with the intervening hills 

 and plains, forests, villages and surrounding plantations.' 



Buitenzorg. — In 1774, Buitenzorg, that is "Sans Souci, " was chosen as a site of 

 an official health resort and this place has by successive enlargements become a vast 

 residence, now usually occupied by the Governor Generals of the Dutch East Indies. 

 Lying 880 feet above the sea on a wooded slope between the Liwong and Dani river 

 valleys, Buitenzorg commands a superb prospect of the surrounding forest-clad 

 gloomy gorges and undulating heights, rising in one direction toward Mount Salak, 

 in another toward Gede * * * But Buitenzorg is not sufficiently elevated to be 

 regarded as a sanitarium. Hence invalids and convalescents usually prefer the 

 station of Sindang-Laya, which stands at an altitude of 3,560 feet on the northern 

 slope of Ged^ near the vast nursery grounds of Tjibodas.^ 



Alfred Russell Wallace, who climbed the mountains of Ged6 and 

 Pangranggo in 1861, describes his experiences as follows: 



By far the most interesting incident of my visit to Java was a trip to the summit of 

 Pangerango and Gedeh Mountains, the former an extinct volcanic cone about 10,000 

 feet high, the latter an active crater on a lower portion of the same mountain range. 

 * * * The first mile was over open country which brought us to the forest that covers 

 the whole mountain from a height of about 5,000 feet. The next mile or two was a 

 tolerably steep ascent through a grand virgin forest, the trees being of great size and 

 the undergrowth consisting of fine herbaceous plants, tree-ferns, and shrubby vege- 

 tation. I was struck by the imme/ise number of ferns that grew by the side of the 

 road. Their variety seemed endless and I was continually stopping to admire some 

 new or interesting forms. I could now well understand what I had been told by the 

 gardener, that 300 species had been found on this one mountain. * * * Continuing 

 our ascent, the road became narrow, rugged, and steep, winding zigzag up the cone, 



1 Elis^e Reclus, The Universal Geography, vol. 14, p. 150-153. 2 idem, p. 185. 



