452  Botanical  Garden  at  Buitenzorg.       { A^-pJtS^S ' 
THE  BOTANICAL  GARDEN  AT  BUITENZORG. 
The  following  description  of  the  famous  Buitenzorg  Botanical 
Garden  in  Java,  is  taken  from  an  article  entitled  "  Down  to  Java," 
by  Eliza  Ruhamah  Scidmore,  in  the  Century  Magazine  for  August, 
1897,  anc*  which  is  part  of  a  book  to  be  entitled  "Java:  the  Equa- 
torial Eden,"  to  be  issued  by  the  Century  Company  in  November. 
The  famous  botanical  garden  at  Buitenzorg  is  the  great  show- 
place,  the  paradise  and  pride  of  the  islands.  The  Dutch  are  admit- 
ted to  be  the  best  horticulturists  of  Europe,  and  with  the  heat  of  a 
tropical  sun,  a  daily  shower,  and  a  century's  well-directed  efforts, 
they  have  made  Buitenzorg's  garden  first  of  its  kind  in  the  world, 
despite  the  rival  efforts  of  the  French  at  Saigon,  and  of  the  British 
in  Singapore,  Ceylon,  Calcutta  and  Jamaica.  The  Governor- 
General's  palace  is  in  the  midst  of  a  ninety-acre  inclosure,  reached 
from  the  main  gate  near  the  hotel  by  what  is  undoubtedly  the  finest 
avenue  of  trees  in  the  world.  These  graceful  kanari  trees,  arching 
100  feet  overhead  in  a  great  green  cathedral  aisle,  have  tall, 
straight  trunks,  covered  with  stag-horn  ferns,  bird's-nest  ferns,  ratans, 
creeping  palms,  blooming  orchids,  and  every  kind  of  parasite  and 
air-plant  the  climate  allows;  and  there  is  a  fairy  lake  of  lotus  and 
Victoria  regia  beside  it,  with  pandanus  and  red-stemmed  Banka 
palms  crowded  in  a  great  sheaf  or  bouquet  on  a  tiny  islet.  When 
one  rides  through  this  green  avenue  in  the  dewy  freshness  of  the 
early  morning,  it  seems  as  though  nature  and  the  tropics  could  do 
no  more,  until  he  has  penetrated  the  tunnels  of  waringen  trees,  the 
open  avenues  of  royal  palms,  the  great  plantation  of  a  thousand 
palms,  the  grove  of  tree-fern,  and  the  frangipani  thicket,  and  has 
reached  the  knoll  commanding  a  view  of  the  double  summit  of 
Gedeh  and  Pangerango,  vaporous  blue  volcanic  heights,  from  one 
peak  of  which  a  faint  streamer  of  smoke  perpetually  floats. 
There  is  a  broad  lawn  at  the  front  of  the  palace,  shaded  with  great 
-waringen,  sausage  and  candle  trees,  and  trees  the  branches  of  which 
are  hidden  in  a  mantle  of  vivid-leafed  bougainvillea  vines,  with  deer 
wandering  and  grouping  themselves  in  as  correct  park  pictures  as  if 
under  branches  of  elm  or  oak,  or  beside  the  conventional  ivied 
trunks  of  the  North. 
It  is  a  tropical  experience  to  reverse  an  umbrella  and  in  a  few 
minutes  fill  it  with  golden-hearted  frangipani  blossoms,  or  to  find 
nutmegs  lying  as  thick  as  acorns  on  the  ground,  and  break  their 
