78 A NATURALIST'S WANDERINGS 



profuse abundance, massed in clusters in every stage of growth j 

 and as these in their passage to maturity assume all the diffe- 

 rent brilliant hues by which rich orange changes into the 

 sombre shades of purple, the eifect against the background of 

 the tree-stem and of its own singularly chaste foliage is strik- 

 ing in the extreme, and is one of these objects that the eye can 

 meet every day with renewed pleasure. 



The highest mountain in this neighbourhood attains an 

 elevation of nearly 5000 feet, and for the last 500 yards of its 

 ascent presented many interesting features. In producing 

 plants rarely found at so low an elevation on higher moun- 

 tains, the Javan flora on the pure volcanic clay differs from 

 that Adhere the soil is more overlaid with forest humus. 

 Two ferns, a species of GleicJienia and the broad-fronded 

 Dipteris horsfieldi — here at its lowest altitudinal limit — pro- 

 fusely covered the ground ; and, as if stretching their utmost 

 towards the heights where they naturally grow, rhododendrons 

 and a beautiful creeping species of Ericacese (Omiltheria 

 repens) clothed the tops of the tallest trees. The lemon-scented 

 laurel {Tdrantliera cHrata), whose leaves and fruit give out a 

 sweet odour that can be detected a long way off, grew in 

 clumps ; and its fruits, a favourite food of the Bulbuls and 

 the Bell-birds, retain their perfume even after they have been 

 dropped by these birds. 



At the summit pitcher-plants {Nepenthes phyllamphora) 

 appeared in profusion, climbing up the trees and running 

 over the ground among the moss, out of which peeped the 

 delicate bright star-like flowers of the Afjrostemma monfanum, 

 which always reminded me of the pretty European Chick\veed 

 Winter-green (Trienialis europoea) of our northern woods. 

 On one of the lower knolls I found perhaps the most in- 

 teresting plant in my Javan collection, a species of Petrsea 

 (P. arhorea), growing entirely wild in the forest. This genus, 

 belonging to the family of the Verhenaceee, is almost entirelv 

 confined to the South American continent ; and it is of 

 extreme interest to find it, in this inexplicable way, cropping 

 up in a region so far removed from the centre of its distribu- 

 tion. A species from the island of Timor occurs, without 

 history, in the collection in the British Museum made by 

 Mr. Robert Brown ; but these are the only two examples, so 



