292 
VISIT TO THE TANKOEBAN PRAHOE IN JAVA. 
find yourself amongst the vertical giant stems of a wood which, how~ 
ever different in kind, causes no more interest than if, like the 
“ Pines of the North” they consisted of one species only. 
The trees are far enough apart to see at one glance a thousand of 
them, mostly a hundred feet in- height and from 2 to 5 feet in dia¬ 
meter rising perpendicularly to 40 or 60 feet before they spread out 
their branches and form their crown of leaves, through which day¬ 
light much weakened finds its way with difficulty,—it involuntarily 
reminds one of an immeasurable temple with its green roof supported 
on a thousand pillars. This first impression is much augmented by the 
deathlike silence and the complete immobility of all surrounding ob¬ 
jects. Not a stem shakes or moves, not a leaf rustles. The forest 
appears conscious of the volcano beneath at whose expense it has de¬ 
rived its majesty ; it seems to know the danger which threatens it, 
below from the destructive hand of man, above from the awful 
craters which appear ready to pour over it their deadly vapours or 
hissing mud. It appears in deadly silence to await its fate. Not¬ 
withstanding this apparent death not a spot can be perceived not 
teeming with life, the rich moist soil of the trodden narrow footpath 
excepted. The bottom is covered with moss but even this is seldom 
visible through the ferns stretching their foliage above and below be¬ 
tween the stems of the trees to several feet above the surface, and 
yet are only low grass compared to the gigantic stems whose crowns 
shadow them. Numerous amongst these Filices are the magnificent 
tree ferns the Pakoe Tiang of the Soedanese, which first show their 
star formed leafy crown above the lower vegetation and remind one 
of the palm and shore foliage. Here and there between them blos¬ 
som the fine scented Gandapoera wangie, odoriferous haurineen and 
higher up the elegant Pandan which, with many other plants, on 
closer inspection enliven what at first appeared a deadly scene. 
But between this vegetation on the ground and the high crowned 
arches of the proud trees a third world of vegetation flourishes, that 
of the parasites and pseudo parasites. The ground was too con¬ 
fined to nourish and spread to view such riches. A forest in the 
tropics is as it were one of nature’s capital towns where the mime- 
