226 A NATURALIST'S WANDERINGS 



pheasants screamed, and the howl of the Siamang broke the 

 stillness of the evening. The sensation was as if an inter- 

 mittent upheaval, such as I witnessed in the crater of the 

 Dempo, had taken place under my feet. 



The stream close at hand swarmed with excellent fish, of 

 which some were caught every day for my table ; the woods 

 ■were full of deer, which frequented the hot springs to drink, 

 of herds of tapir and of elegant little Tragulidx. Numerous 

 Buceros birds advertised their presence by their cries ; in the 

 darker shades were pittas (P. venmta) pheasants and species of 

 partridge {Cdloperdix oeuha); while Babbling-thrushes (Rhino- 

 cichla mitrata and Sibia simillima), and many kinds besides, 

 added their chorus to the woods. 



The botanical features of the district were not without 

 interest, though not so rich as some of the localities I had 

 already visited. At my door, growing in a thicket, was one of 

 those shrubs (Sambucus javaniea), which like the Ponicettia, 

 produce in the close vicinity of their florets, curious and 

 little cups full of rich, yellow honey whose function is still a 

 disputed question. The species of Sambiicus in Europe, as 

 is well known, have thread-like stipules with glandular tips, 

 which in 8. racemosa, M. Bonnier * has observed, produce 

 liquid sugar abundantly. H. Miillert has recorded that a 

 species of Sambucus (S. nigra ?) is not visited by bees, but by 

 flies, on account of its odour ; but M. Bonnier says, " S. racemosa 

 is visited by bees. The distribution of the nectaries . . . 

 (according to the German physiological botanist Sachs) is 

 always in immediate relation to the specific combinations that 

 the fiower has developed (realise) for the purpose of fertilisa- 

 tion by insects. They visit the flowers to imbibe the nectar, 

 by which they are nourished, and which is distilled exclusively 

 for this purpose." M. Bonnier holds j that "the greater part 

 of the accumulated sugar returns to the plant when the nectar, 

 loses the sugar it contain-ed [which supervenes when the fruit 

 begins to grow]. ... In regard to the floral nectaries, when 

 the sugar disappears from the nectariferous tissue, they go to 



* Bnnnier, " Les Nectaires," Annates des Sciences Katurelles Botanique, viii. 

 1879, pp. 1-212. For a lefertnoe to this interesting paiier I am much 

 indebteit to Lord Justice Fry. 



t ' Die Befruchting der Blumen dureh Insekten," Leipzig, 1873, p. 433. 



% Loc, cit. y. 1'j9. 



