600 GEOGRAPHICAL NOTES IN MALAYSIA AND ASIA, 



foggy and damp. I found the mountain regions always depressing^ 

 especially as in these latitudes the sun is seldom seen at such 

 elevations. It is rarely also, one gets a glimpse at the plains 

 below. 



Vegetation. — Only a few words can be here devoted to the 

 vegetation of Java, as to attempt to enter into any detail 

 would be quite disproportionate to this essay. In brief it may be 

 said that Java is, in the main characters of its flora, like the whole 

 of the Indian Archipelago. On the coast are found the dense 

 mangrove forests (Bruguiera, Ehizophora tfcc). In the plains 

 cultivation leaves but little to the indigenous flora. Useful palms 

 are introduced, fruit trees, such as mangoes, mangosteens, durians, 

 bread-fruit, jack-fruit, custard-apples, rambi, rambutan, guavas, 

 jambosa, pine-apples, and last not least, every variety of plantain 

 and banana. I do not refer to the ciiltivation which includes 

 cofiee, tea, quinine, indigo, sugar, Betel-pepper, pepper, spices gener- 

 ally, cotton, sweet potatoes, tobacco, and earth-nuts, and rice in 

 enomious quantities yet not sufiicient for the home consumption. 



On the higher slopes of the mountain the jungle commences, 

 with fig-trees, dipterocarpaceous forests interspersed Avith oaks, 

 chestnuts, the copal tree, a huge king of the forest attaining 150 feet 

 high, and 10 or 12 feet at the bole. This is called by the Malays 

 Dammar and hence the botanical name Dammara orientalis, Lam- 

 bert. The timber is of little value, but it produces a fine trans- 

 parent resin which deeply coats the ground for yards around and 

 hangs like icicles about the stem, being a source of profit to the 

 natives. The forests in these higher regions ai'e thickly matted 

 together by creepers, vines, climbing palms and aroids of every 

 sort and size, the natural order Melastomaceie having the largest 

 number of representatives ( Melastoma, Medinilla Sonerila, &c.). 

 Underneath the trees the shade is thick, making a greenish twilight 

 in which immense tree-ferns and large ferns of the genera Marattia, 

 Angmpteris and Matonia, combined with innumerable other 

 cryptogams cover the ground, while orchids in multitudes of indi- 

 viduals and species cling to the branches and stems of the trees. 



