628 



JAVA. 



Java. The shell of the nut is converted into cups, which are 

 '""Y"'' often carved with wonderful neatness and skill ; and 

 the fibres of the husk are manufactured into mats, coarse 

 cloth, and cordage. A milky fluid also which exudes 

 from the young nut during its growth, is collected by 

 the natives with great care into vessels suspended at 

 the extremity of the branches, which in its first stage of 

 fermentation is called palm- wine, and in its second be- 

 comes a pleasant vinegar. It is a material ingredient 

 in the distillation of arrack ; and, if slowly evaporated 

 over a fire or in the open air, leaves as a residue a kind 

 of coarse brown sugar. The celebrated upas, or poison 

 tree, described as situated in the centre of the island, 

 and destroying by its noxious effluvia; all animal and 

 vegetable life in its vicinity, to the extent of ten or 

 twelve miles around, is now ascertained to have no real 

 existence. There are in Java several plants and trees, 

 from which a poison called ipo or upas is extracted ; 

 but these are generally found in the most fertile places, 

 Fruit- surrounded by the most luxuriant vegetation. * Fruit 

 trees, trees of various kinds are remarkably abundant ; and 



many of them extremely beautiful. The most remarka- 

 ble, is the Mangoostan, accounted the most delicious 

 fruit in the world, equally pleasing to the eye and gra- 

 tifying to the taste, of a round form and purple colour; 

 and growing on a very beautiful tree, which bears like 

 the orange both fruit and flowers at the same time on 

 the extremities of the branches. The mango, another 

 exquisite fruit, grows on a large spreading tree like the 

 walnut. The rambootan, a hairy fruit, a cool and agreea- 

 ble fruit of a delicate sub-acid flavour, grows on a showy 

 and elegant tree. The doorian, a large fruit, resembling 

 the bread-fruit in appearance, of a most disgusting 

 smell, and of a flavour like a custard, seasoned with 

 garlic, but said to become by frequent use extremely 

 fascinating, grows on a lofty tree with small pointed 

 leaves. The boa lansa, in great estimation among the 

 lower classes, grows upon a tree of a moderate size, in 

 clusters like grapes, of which each individual fruit re- 

 sembles the famous li-tchi of China, and has a pulpy 

 substance with a delicate sub-acid taste. Pine apples 

 are produced in such abundance, that they are sent to 

 market in cart loads, and sold at the rate of a halfpenny 

 a piece, but are not much esteemed in the country, ex- 

 cept for preserving. Out of many other fruits, may be 

 mentioned the atrocarpus or jack fruit, which grows 

 wild in great abundance ; the averrhoa much used for 

 tarts and pickle ; the eugenia or rose apple, sweetsop, 

 custard apple, dates, pomegranates, tamarinds, figs, 

 guavas, annanas, bananas, oranges,, lemons, citrons, 

 shaddocks, grapes, melons, and pumpkins. Most of the 

 fruits of Europe have been transplanted to the island ; 

 but except strawberries and a few others, which are 

 said to thrive in the interior parts of the country, most 

 of them are found to dwindle and degenerate in that 

 equinoctial climate. Among the trees and shrubs 

 u-kable wm - c h are remarkable for singularity or beauty, may 

 irubs. ke no *' ce d the casuarina equisetifolia, whose pendant 

 branches resemble the hair of the cassowary ; the 

 mitchelia tchampaca, bearing flowers of an exquisite 

 fragrance, which yield by distillation a spirit more 

 powerful, but not less delicate, than the perfume ex- 

 tracted from roses ; the terminalia catappa, a large and 

 beautiful tree, bearing a nut, usually known by the name 

 of the Indian almond: the bombax, which bears a long 

 pod full of a silky substauce, used for stuffing cushions, 

 &c. the coral trees, lyriodendrum, tulipifedr um, magnvlia, 



milia, bignonia, all showy and elegant trees. The Jv. 

 gardenia florida, Arabian jasmine, clove, cinnamon, ^"V"*' 

 tuberose, nutmeg, plumeria, scree or lemon-grass, are 

 cultivated in the gardens on account of their beauty 

 and fragrance. Among the rarer plants are the elastic 

 gum-tree, the convolvulus Jalappa, the styrax liqnida, 

 the bread-fruit, and the mountain cabbage-tree of the 

 West Indies. But the most extraordinary vegetable 

 production of Java, and the other eastern islands, is 

 the nepenthes distillatoria, or pitcher plant, which is 

 found in the most arid situations, but is provided with 

 a curious contrivance for securing a sufficient supply of 

 moisture. To the footstalk of each leaf is attached a 

 small tube, shaped like a pitcher, covered with a lid, 

 which is moveable on a kind of hinge or strong fibre 

 passing over the handle, and connected with the leaf. 

 By the contraction of this fibre the lid is opened, when 

 the weather is showery or the dews fall ; and, when 

 the moisture has filled the pitcher, closes again so firm- 

 ly as to prevent evaporation, securing the water for the 

 sustenance of the plant. 



The agricultural productions of the country are Agricultti. 

 highly valuable in a commercial point of view, and are ral produc- 

 raised with little trouble by the native cultivator. The tions> 

 soil is slightly tilled by a clumsy plough drawn by one 

 or two buffaloes ; and the only manuring, which it re- 

 ceives, consists in burning upon the fields all the weeds 

 and rubbish, which have sprung up on their surface. 

 When a piece of ground ceases to yield an adequate 

 crop, it is merely suffered to lie fallow for a few years, 

 to bring it again into a fertile state. Garden grounds 

 are moistened with water, in which oil-cakes and va- 

 rious excrementitious substances have been dissolved, 

 which renders the soil extremely productive. The 

 principal production of Java is rice, which in white- 

 ness, flavour, and other qualities, excels that of all the 

 eastern archipelago, and ranks next to that of Japan. 

 The island produces this grain in such abundance, that 

 it has been called the granary of the East. Besides 

 furnishing a sufficiency for its own consumption, it 

 supplies many of the adjacent countries, and all the 

 more easterly Dutch settlements. In the year 1767, 

 the quantity of 14,000 tons was sent to Batavia, Ceylon, 

 and Banda. In reaping the rice, a small knife is used 

 instead of a sickle, with which every stalk, singly, is 

 cut about a foot below the ear, and they are then 

 bound in sheaves, the tenth of which is the reward of 

 the reaper. The rice is separated from the husk, by 

 stamping it in hollow wooden blocks ; and the more it is 

 stamped, the whiter it becomes when boiled. The 

 next staple commodity of Java is pepper, of which 

 there are various kinds, and which is chiefly produced 

 in the western parts of the island. The whole quantity 

 produced in the country amounted, in 1777, to six 

 millions of pounds weight, and the regulated price at 

 which the king of Bantam was then bound to deliver it 

 to the Dutch Company, was about two pence half- 

 penny per pound. The pepper of Java is esteemed 

 next in point of quality to that which comes from the 

 coast of Malabar. Sugar is raised in Java in considera- 

 ble quantities, but chiefly in the province of Jacatra. 

 In 1768, the whole produce exceeded fifteen millions 

 of pounds, and was capable cf being greatly augment- 

 ed. The cane grows luxuriantly, and is a favourite 

 object of culture with the Chinese inhabitants, who 

 are the great planters and manufacturers of supar on 

 the island. It is planted from September to April, and 



*Stt Memoir by M. Leschenault in the Annalei du Musewm iTaiatairc A'aturelle, cap. xi. and xii. p. 4.57. 



