JHusttrattang at pj)j)tG--#nnjrap?)g, 



VEGETATION OF THE CAROLINE IS- 

 LANDS, ON THE OUTSKIRTS OF 

 WOOD. 



(Plate II.) 



[REFERENCE. — a. Artocarpus incisa; b. Cala- 

 dium; c. Pandamis odoratissimus in fruit; 

 d. Crimwm; e. Tree- Fern. J 



This illustration introduces us into a 

 valley of the island of Ualan, Caroline 

 Archipelago, where, without much labour, 

 the level land has been brought into a 

 certain state of cultivation, being planted 

 principally with those products of the 

 island which furnish food. Bread-fruit 

 trees, bananas, two gigantic species of 

 Caladium, and the Tahitian sugar-cane 

 grow here so intermingled that there is 

 some difficulty in determining whether 

 there has been any arbitrary plantation or 

 not. The Bread-fruit tree (Artocarpus in- 

 cisa) on the left-hand side is quite a young 

 specimen, just beginning to bear fruit. 

 The plantains and bananas of this place 

 belong to four varieties, the specific types 

 of which are Musa paradisaica and Musa 

 sapientum. Of the two larger Caladiums 

 (fig. b) one is allied to, if not identical with, 

 the well-known C. macrorrhizum, the root 

 of which is used as an article of food. A 

 third smaller species is the Caladium 

 esculentum, the Kalo or Taro of the South 

 Sea Islands. Pandanus odoratissimus, the 

 Screw-pine, so called from its leaves being 

 arranged like the windings of a screw, and 

 its fruits having somewhat the outward 

 appearance of pine-cones, is seen on the 

 right-hand side of our illustration. Close 

 to it will be seen the Morinda citrifolia, 

 having a pale-green foliage and a whitish 

 edible fruit of poor flavour. To the most 

 prominent plants of this island belongs the 

 widely-diffused Draccena terminalis, com- 

 monly used for hedges. A fine Crinum 

 with massive leaves grows isolated about 

 the outskirts of the forests : anda Maranta, 

 growing gregariously, abounds. Almost 

 in the very centre of our picture are seen 

 tree-ferns ; and just above them the Termi- 

 nalia Catappa, the horizontal branches of 

 which form distinctly marked stories 

 around the erect steins, imparting to the 

 tree the aspect of a pine tree, and to the 

 landscape a very peculiar and well-marked 

 feature. [B. S.J 



ANTIARI3 AND COFFEE PLANTATION 

 IN JAVA. 



(Plate III.) 



A glance at our illustration, taken from 

 Blume's magnificent Rumphia, showing 

 the An&iaria tomeoria or Upas tree of Java, 

 surrounded by coffee plantations and other 

 indications of human industry, at once 

 disproves many of the exaggerated and 



fabulous accounts propagated about this 

 famous poison plant by the early travel- 

 lers. There is no sign of the extreme 

 sterility of the ground in the vicinity of 

 the poison trees, which was said for a 

 considerable distance round to produce 

 neither grass nor any other vegetable. 

 Nor can it, with such surroundings, be 

 true that, if the tree be pierced, those 

 standing to windward would quickly be 

 suffocated by its noxious effluvia, or that 

 birds which fly over a recently wounded 

 tree would meet the same fate. These and 

 similar fables, Bennett and others have ex- 

 plained by transferring the odium to the 

 marshy and unwholesome exhalations of 

 parts of the Indian Archipelago to which 

 state criminals, and especially those of the 

 highest class, were sometimes banished, 

 and where they speedily died of malaria, 

 and not, as the vulgar believed, of the 

 emanations of the Upas tree. The poison- 

 ous nature of the Antiaris toxicaria, 

 stripped of all exaggeration, is, however, 

 sufficiently powerful and deadly to make 

 great precaution necessary. Dr. Horsfield 

 had some difficulty in inducing the inhabi- 

 tants of Java to assist him in collecting 

 the juice which he required for his experi- 

 ments, as they feared a cutaneous eruption 

 and inflammation, resembling, according to 

 the account they gave of it, that produced 

 by the Rhus vernix of Japan, and the Rhus 

 radicans of North America ; but they were 

 only affected by a slight heat and itching 

 of the eyes. In clearing new grounds for 

 cultivation, in which the Upas tree occurs, 

 it is with difficulty the inhabitants can be 

 made to approach the Upas, as they dread 

 the cutaneous eruption which it is known 

 to produce when newly cut down. But 

 except when the tree is largely wounded, 

 or when it is felled, by which a consider- 

 able portion of the juice is disengaged, 

 the effluvia of which, mixing with the 

 atmosphere, affect persons exposed to it 

 with the symptomsjust mentioned, the tree 

 may be approached and ascended like the 

 other common trees of the forests. [B. S.] 



VEGETATION OF BAMBOOS IN 

 JAVA. 



(Plate IV.) 



Those who compare the small meadow 

 grasses of northern couutries with the tall 

 cocoa-nut trees of the tropics will probably 

 think it fanciful that botanists should 

 proclaim the plebeian grasses to approach 

 in their external structure, as well as their 

 internal organisation, nearest to the palms, 

 termed by the illustrious Linnaeus, the 

 Princes of the Vegetable Kingdom. But 

 this dictum of science will appear less 

 fanciful wheu the huge bamboo, as the 

 noblest representative of the grasses, with 

 its tree-like trunk fit for fuel and building 



