I90 THE ISLAND OF JAVA. 
closes so firmly as to prevent any evaporation from taking 
place. The water, being gradually absorbed through the 
handle into the footstalk, gives vigour to the leaf and suste- 
nance to the plant. As soon as the pitchers are exhausted, 
■the lids again open to admit whatever moisture may fall ; 
and Avhen the ])lant has produced its seed, and the dry season 
fairly sets in, it Avithers, with all the covers of the pitchers 
standing open. Why the name of Homer's grief-dispelling 
plant should have been transferred to the pitcher plant I am 
unable to explain ; but it does not appear to be possessed of 
any sedative or narcotic quality like 
" ■ that Nepenthes which the wife of Thone 
" In Egypt gave to Jove born Helena." 
Many of the products of Java are not less valuable in a 
commercial point of view, than those which I have enume- 
r^ated are useful to the natives, curious to the traveller, or 
ornamental to the face of the country. Of such may be men- 
tioned, among the most important, sugar, coffee, cocoa, 
spices, sago, cotton, and indigo. The Catjang is cultivated 
by the Chinese for the sake of the oil expressed from the 
seed, which is not only used abundantly among themsdves 
and by other natives, but is also exported to China. Several 
hundred acres, at no great distance from Batavia, are an- 
nually covered with this plant, which appears to be a species 
of Dolichos, of low growth and very .prolific in long pods 
v/hieh rest upon, and even grow into, the earth. The Caja- 
putta oil, expressed from the Melaleuca Leucadendrum, is 
greatly esteemed as a specific for removing rheumatic com- 
plaints, both in the eastern and the western world. The 
