noAV. X3CIT.] J GOOD BOTANICAL lOCJlITT. 343 



Afterwards, I found a path -vvhicli led for a mile or 

 more tlirough a veiy fine forest, richer in palms than 

 any I had seen in the Mnhiccas. One uf these especially 

 attracted my attention from its elegance. The stem was 

 not thicker than my wrist, yet it was very lofty, and 

 bore clusters of briglit red fruit. It wa^ apparently a 

 species of Areca. Another of immense height closely 

 resembled in appearance the Euterpes of Sonth America. 

 Here also grew the fan-leafed palm, whose small, nearly- 

 entire leaves are used to make the dammar torches, and to 

 form the water-buckets in nniversal use. During this 

 walk T saw ntiar a dozen species of palms, as well as two 

 or three Panriani different from those of Langnmli. Tliera 

 were also some ver}' fine climbing ferns and true wild 

 Plantains (Musa), bearing an edible fruit not so large as 

 one's thumb, and consisting of a mass of seeds just covered 

 with pulp and skin. The people assured me they had 

 tried the experiment of sowing and cultivating this 

 species, but could not improve it. They probably did not 

 grow it in suflicient quantity, and did not pereevere sufh- 

 ciently long. 



Batcliian is an island that wotdd perhaps repay the 

 researches of a botanist better than any other in the 

 whole Archipelago. It contains a great variety of sur- 

 face and of soil, abundance of large and small streams, 

 many of %vhjch are navi-zable for some dist-anco, and there 

 being no savage inhabitant's, every part of it can be visited 

 with perfect safety. It possesses gold, copper, and coal, 

 hot si>rings and geysers, sedimentary and volcanic rocks 

 and coralline limestone, alluvial plauis, abrupt hills and 

 lofty mountains, a moist climate, and a grand and luxuriant 

 forest vegetation. 



The few days I stayed here produced me several new 

 insects, but scarcely any birds. Buttertiies and birds are 

 in fact remarkably scarce in these forests. One may walk 

 a whole day and not see more than two or three species of 

 either. In everything but beetles, these eastern islands 

 are very deficient compared with the western (Java, 

 Borneo, &c.), and much more so if compared with the 

 forests of South America, where twenty or thirty spt^cies 

 of butterflies may be caught every day, and on very good 



