IN JAVA. 



75 



for 80 and sometimes 100 feet. Of the other stately trees 

 liere, I noticefl the Jlangosteen (Garcinia man^osiam) and 

 the Vermnia javanicay a member of a family, the Comjmit^j 

 that in our own country never attains any importance greater 

 than that of a moderate herb. 



The season, however, was a very unfortunate one for enlarging 

 my lierbarium. Little over t^n per cent, of all tlie forest trees 

 in 1879 produced either flower or fruit. During 1877 a great 

 scarcity of rain prevailed, while in 1878 ahnost an im broken 

 drought existed during the East-monsoon. The parched sur- 

 face of the ground broke up into mvine-like cracks, which, ex- 

 tending from four to five feet in depth and two to three in 

 breadth, destroyed great numbers of the forest-trees by 'en- 

 circling and snapping off their roots. Siirubs and small trees 

 in exposed jtlaces were simply burned up in broad patches, 

 Fjowering was almost entirely suspended—so much so that the 

 wild bees could produce no honey, which in ordinary years is 

 one of the very ahimdaut products of the forests. Crops of all 

 kinds failed, while devastating-fires, whose origin could seldom 

 l*e traced, were so frequent in the forest and in the great alang- 

 alang fields, that the population lived in constant fear of 

 their villages and even of their lives and stock. It was in vain 

 that the natives, following their superstitious rites, carried their 

 cats in procession, to the sound of gongs and the clattering 

 of rice blocks, to the nearest streams to bathe and sprinkle 

 them ; the rain after such a ceremony m^ht to have come, 

 but it did noL 



The BaMvi'a Eandehhlad states tlie loss in Java, conseqnent 

 on the drought of 1878, to have lieen on coffee, ten millions 

 of guilders ; on sugar, seven ; on tobacco, five ; aiid on rice 

 fifteen— equal in all to a loss in English money of £3,000,000. 

 The West-monsoon (November to March) of 1878-9, memorable 

 for its excessive rain, was followed by an abnormally wet and 

 sunless drj^ season, which was almost as disastrous for the 

 cultiures of the island as its predecessors had been from 

 drought. The cofree-treos produced abundance of flowers, but 

 as scarcely a hee was to be seen anywhere, very few of these 

 became fertilised or produced berries — so easily is the balance 

 of nature distuid)ed. Later in the setison, however, the roffeo 

 shrubs ]»rodiicfd a second show of (lowers, wLiiL-h \\\ a multitude 



