us 



JAVA, 



[chap, YIU 



times more than three feet high, the root leaves are eighteen 

 iuches long, and it hears several whorls of cowalip-like 

 Oowei-s, instead of a temiinal cluster only. The forest trees, 

 gnarled and dwarfed to the lUniensions of hushes, reach 

 up to the veiy rim of the old cmter, hut do not extend 

 over the hollow on its summit. Here we find a good 

 deal of open ground, with thickets of shrubhy Ai'temisias 

 and Gnaphaliums, like our southernwood and cudweed, hut 

 sue or eiglit feet high ; while Buttercups, Violets, Whortle- 

 bemes, Sow-thistles, Cluckweed^ white and yellow Gru- 

 cilerae, Plantain, and annual grasses everj'where abound. 

 Where there are hushes and shrubs, the St, John's-wort 

 and Honeysuckle grow abundantly, while the Imperial 

 Cowslip only exhibits its elegant blossoms ujider the 

 damp shade of the thickets. 



Mr. Motley, who visited the mountain in the dry season, 

 and paid much attention to botany, gives the following 

 list of genera characteristic of distant and more temperate 

 regions Two species of Violet, thn^e of Ranunculus, 

 three of Tmpatiens, eight or ten of Euhus, and species 

 of Primula, Hj^ericum, Swertia, Convallaria (lily of the 

 Valley), Vaccinium (Cranberry), Rnododendron, Gnapha- 

 linni, Polygonum, Digitalis (Foxglove), Lonicera (Honey- 

 suckle), Plantago (Rib-grass), Artemisia (Wormwood), 

 Lobelia, Oxahs (Wood-sorrcQ, Qiiercns (Oak), and Taxus 

 (Yew). A few of the smaller plants (Plantago major and 

 lanceolata, Sonchns oleraceus, and Artemisia vulgaris) are 

 identical with European species. 



The fact of a vegetation so closely allied to that of 

 Europe occurring on isolated mountain peaks, in an island 

 south of the Equator, while all the lowlands for tliousands 

 of miles around are occupied by a flora of a totally 

 different character, is very extraordinary ; and has only 

 recently received an intelligible explanation. Tlie Peak 

 of Tenerifle, which rises to a greater height and is much 

 nearer to Europe, contains no such Alpine flora ; neither 

 do the mountains of Bourbon and Mauritius. Tlie case 

 of the volcanic peaks of Java is therefore somewhat 

 exceptional, but there are several analogous, if not exactly 

 parallel cases, that will enable us betttT to understand 

 in what way the phenomena may possibly have been 



