108 



A NATURALISrS WJNDERJNaS 



After resting a day in Baudong I proceeded to my destina- 

 tion, some thirty miles farther to the 8t>uth. For fifteen miles 

 of the way it was possible to drive iix a spring cait, which I 

 hired in the Uiwn ; but the rest of the road, which rises to 45UU 

 feet, is very steep, and had to be accomplished on horsebaek. 



The road in the lower districts, shaded at short int^Tvals by 

 leafy Hibiscus trees, passed betwt^en hedges of bright yellow- 

 purple- and red-flowering Lantana; higher up broad patches 

 of pink balsam {Impaiieftsj^ shady AlMzziiWf purfde Bin- 

 tino (LaijerHmmia), tall troe-ferns and a shrul>by species 

 of Cmsia bearing large trosses of bright golden flowers^ were 

 met with. A little higher a sjx'cies of Datura ^ with broad 

 leaves and large white trumpet-shaped flowers, suddenly 

 became abundant. Being utilised by the natives as boundary 

 hedges for their eoflec-gardens, it formed by the size and 

 abundance of its flowers a marked feature of the vegetation. 



Five or six hours of slow ascent brought us at last to l*on- 

 gelengan, a small village lying at an elevation of -1500 ft-et 

 above the sea, on an undulating plateau formed by the inner 

 slopes of the Jlahiwar, Wayang and Tilu mountains, whose 

 summits range from f>UOO to 7500 feet, and at several points 

 command a view of the Bouth Indian Ocean. On the out- 

 skirts of the village was a comfortable and convenient Govern- 

 ment bungalow^ in which visitors to this rather ont-of-the-way 

 spot could, with the penuission of the Besident (always wil- 

 lingly granted), be accommodated for a time. Here I was in 

 the centre of one of the great Government coffee districts, and 

 in the vicinity of its cinchona plantations on the slopes of the 

 surrounding mountains. 



One of my first visits was paid to the ■ Bark * gardens in order 

 to see in a living state these famous trees, and especially that 

 species with cream-coloured flowers^ the Cinchona Ledgeriana, 

 which liad attained so great a celebrity, and could in 18S(J 

 l>e seen, excepting in our Himalayan gardens, almost nowhere 

 else but in the Dutch plantations. It is now little more 

 than thirty years since the Netherlands Indian fTOvernment 

 began to cultivate cinchona. Their first seed was brought 

 by Ilaskarl, of the Botanical Gardens in Buitenzorg, who 

 had been deputed by the then Colonial Jlinister to visit 

 Peru to see the tree in its native forests and bring home 



