46 Botanical Notices from Java. 
nearest existing reptiles would point to its oviparity as the more 
probable kind of generation ; but the genus Zootoca and the Viper 
show that analogy is no safe guide in such a question ;” “and the 
European black and yellow Salamander of Bohemia once brought 
forth young ones half as long as the mother, either in the Doctor’s 
pocket or College rooms ;” therefore with such evidence it now 
appears fair to conclude that the Jchthyosauri were viviparous, — 
Montague House, Lambridge, Bath, Dec. 9th, 1845. 
IX.—Journey through Java, descriptive of its Topography and 
Natural History. By Dr. Fx. Junenvnn*, 
(Continued from vol. xvi. p. 466.] 
Journey to the Extinct Volcano of Tjermai. 
Tur author saw here large woods of Tectonia. The Tectonia 
grandis is one of the few tropical trees which occur in company, and 
expel all others. But it does not afford the cool shade, nor form 
such a beautiful vaulted foliage as other tropical trees; no Liane 
climbs up its boughs; its stems, destitute of bark, rise naked and 
barren, with only here and there a single leaf. The ground beneath 
it is covered only with dry grass; no Pothos, no Orchidee or Scitami- 
ne@ here raise their succulent stalks. Yet here also man appears to have 
contributed much to the barrenness of these woods ; for the Japanese, 
in order to drive away the tigers and to make the soil cultivable, 
yearly set fire to large districts of the grass Alang-alang (at the 
driest season), by which also the leaves of the Tectonia are at the 
same time singed. When the author had reached the coffee-planta- 
tions, he entered at the same time upon the lower limits of the forest 
tract, which is everywhere divided by sharp lines from the lower cul- 
tivated country. With the increase of cultivation the extent of the 
forests is more and more narrowed. ‘The author saw thousands of 
trees felled in the coffee-plantations ; a few being left standing wide 
apart, to shade the young coffee-plants. ‘‘ We thus explain,” he 
observes, ‘‘ the sharply-defined limits by. which the woods, almost on 
all the higher mountains in Java, are separated from the lower cul- 
tivated declivities,—a limit which is continually forced higher and 
higher by the advance of cultivation, which however on most of the 
mountains begins at a height of from 3000 to 4000 feet. At a di- 
stance, therefore, the upper half of such mountains appears of a 
dark bluish green, while the lower half has a bright greenish yellow 
aspect. 
« We are inclined to think that the forests in Java originally ex- 
tended to the foot of the mountains, and indeed to the sea-coast, and 
that they have been extirpated up to their present elevation solely by 
cultivation. We frequently observe forests cease suddenly in abrupt, 
sharply-defined limits on the lower side, on soft acclivities, whose 
* From the Botanische Zeitung, Sept. 19th, 1845. 
