.1 NATUItAlJ$T\S JVAKIfElUNOS 



able vegetation of the country ; these trees being, to a great 

 extent, tlio lineal descendants of the vegetatitm that has 

 always exiBted on the island wince it canje into its present 

 condition at least* Perhaps indeed some of the aged giants 

 may have actually witnessed the young days of the present 

 geological cycle. In tlie virgin furesit tUnith and decay are 

 jnst as nipid as anywhere else; individual trees are constantly 

 falling out of the ranks, but their phieo is taken by younger 

 members either of the same or of neiglibi airing sjiecies. 

 When, however, this ancient forest is devastated to any 

 great extent, either by natural means or by the woodcutter's 

 axe, the trees that arise belong to a diflerent lineage, the new 

 wood is in great bulk of diflereut species, which, strange to say, 

 were but rarely to be found in the old forest. 



As in Java the origimd forest is rapidly disappearing ; each 

 yetir sees immense tracts felled fur rice fields, more than is 

 actually necessary, and also much wanton destruction by wilful 

 fires. Trees of the rarest and finest timber are hewed, half burned, 

 and then left to rot ; amid their prostrate trunks a couple of 

 harvests are reaped, then the gruuud is deserted, and soon fills 

 up with the fast-growing and worthless woods, or falls a prey 

 to the ineradicable alang-alang grass. Our children's children 

 will search in vain in their tra\'els for the old forest trees of 

 which they have read In the books of their grandfathers; 

 and to make their aerpiaintance, they will have to content 

 themselves with what they can glean from the treasured 

 specimens in various herbaria, which will then be the only 

 remains of the extinct vegetable races. 



In every clearing, trees, from their gigantic size, have here 

 and there escaped tj^e axe, and been allowed to stand un- 

 molested. One cannot resist a feeling of pity for the solitude 

 of these towering monarcLsj whose grandeur, concealed as they 

 stood amid the multitude of their peers, can now be seen in 

 all thetrstateliness. They look the very picture of strength and 

 iniraobility; yet, though they have withstood, in the company 

 of their fellows, the storm and sun of centuries, they survive 

 their solitude but a very few seasoiiH, getting feebler year by 

 year, one great limb after another dying and dropping off, till 

 all life ceases, when some lightning flash or sudden blast 

 measures their noble stems on the ground. 



