m JAVA. 77 



from the eruption of Krakatoa, in 1883, overwhelmed its sea- 

 board and washed so many of their fellows to destruction. 



Notwithstanding the bad season, by huuting far and wide 

 my herbarium grew slowly in bulk, for, though the great 

 trees were in a very destitute condition, herbaceous plants 

 were abundant, and not a few of the smaller shrubs and trees 

 had begun to recover somewhat. Among the most attractive 

 shrubs were the species of figs, of which there was an endless 

 variety. The whole group of the Artooarpew is remarkable 

 for beauty of foliage and fruit — as the hollow receptacle in 

 which their minute flowers and true fruits are developed is 

 often popularly called — for their striking habit and for their 

 useful products. Some of them, as the india-rubber producing 

 waringins and kawats species of TJrostigma (U. microcarpum, 

 and consociatum), are among the giants of the vegetable world, 

 and its most relentless parasites and tyrants. Brought by 

 some wandering bird or fruit-eating quadruped to the cleft of 

 a high tree, the seed germinating drops down all round its 

 host long tendril-like roots, which in a few seasons become 

 indissoluble bonds that interlace, grow together, and close up 

 the tree-stem that gave it its support, till its life is choked 

 out, and only here and there, before it finally disappears, can it 

 be seen through latticed apertures, like an Inquisition martyr 

 built into the wall. The young kawat grows, shoots upward 



its top and 



" spreads her arras, 

 Branching so broad and long, that on the ground 

 The bended twigs take root ; and daughters grow 

 About the mother-tree, a pillared shade." 



Less stately bur not less beautiful are the shrub forms, the 

 species of Hamplas {Fioiis microcarioa, amplas, and politoria) 

 whose rough leaves provide the natives with ready-made sand- 

 paper; the Ficus eordifoUa, the Amismata (Ficus aspera), 

 and the Kihedjo — a bushy shrub, whose fruit, always in 

 profusion along its branches, is when ripe of a rich purple 

 hue, and unripe of the brightest vermilion or carmine colour, 

 in brilliant contrast to its dark foliage; while the semi- 

 parasitic climbing Ficus ra.dicans delights to cling to the 

 tallest trees of the forest. Its fruit, which is as large as an 

 orange, is put forth throughout the whole extent of its stem in 

 7 



