12 THE MALAY ARCHIPELAGO. [chap. i. 



in the island of Timor and all the smaller islands around 

 it, in which there is absolutely no forest such as exists in 

 the other islands, and this character extends in a lesser 

 degree to Flores, Sumbawa, Lombock, and Bali. 



In Timor the most common trees are Eucalypti of 

 several species, so characteristic of Australia, with sandal- 

 wood, acacia, and other sorts in less abundance. These 

 are scattered over the country more or less thickly, but 

 never so as to deserve the name of a forest. Coarse and 

 scanty grasses grow beneath them on the more barren 

 hills, and a luxuriant herbage in the moister localities. 

 In the islands between Timor and Java there is often a 

 more thickly wooded country, abounding in thorny and 

 prickly trees. These seldom reach any great height, and 

 during the force of the dry season they almost completely 

 lose their leaves, allowing the ground beneath them to 

 be parched up, and contrasting strongly with the damp, 

 gloomy, ever-verdant forests of the other islands. This 

 peculiar character, which extends in a less degree to the 

 southern peninsula of Celebes and the east end of Java, 

 is most probably owing to the proximity of Australia. 

 The south-east monsoon, which lasts for about two-thirds 

 of the year (from March to November), blowing over the 

 northern parts of that country, produces a degree of heat 

 and dryness which assimilates the vegetation and physical 

 aspect of the adjacent islands to its own. A little further 



