Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
below us all the time I was on the mountain; so that I never once saw the plain below, or had
a glimpse of the magnificent view which in fine weather is to be obtained from its summit.
Notwithstanding this drawback I enjoyed the excursion exceedingly, for it was the first time
I had been high enough on a mountain near the Equator to watch the change from a tropical
to a temperate flora. I will now briefly sketch these changes as I observed them in Java.
On ascending the mountain, we first meet with temperate forms of herbaceous plants, so
low as 3,000 feet, where strawberries and violets begin to grow, but the former are tasteless,
and the latter have very small and pale flowers. Weedy Compositæ also begin to give a
European aspect to the wayside herbage. It is between 2,000 and 5,000 feet that the forests
and ravines exhibit the utmost development of tropical luxuriance and beauty. The abund-
ance of noble Tree-ferns, sometimes fifty feet high, contributes greatly to the general effect,
since of all the forms of tropical vegetation they are certainly the most striking and beauti-
ful. Some of the deep ravines which have been cleared of large timber are full of them from
top to bottom; and where the road crosses one of these valleys, the view of their feathery
crowns, in varied positions above and below the eye, offers a spectacle of picturesque
beauty never to be forgotten. The splendid foliage of the broad-leaved Musaceæ and Zingib-
eraceæ, with their curious and brilliant flowers; and the elegant and varied forms of plants
allied to Begonia and Melastoma, continually attract the attention in this region. Filling up
the spaces between the trees and larger plants, on every trunk and stump and branch, are
hosts of Orchids, Ferns and Lycopods, which wave and hang and intertwine in ever-varying
complexity. At about 5,000 feet I first saw horsetails (Equisetum), very like our own spe-
cies. At 6,000 feet, Raspberries abound, and thence to the summit of the mountain there are
three species of eatable Rubus. At 7,000 feet Cypresses appear, and the forest trees become
reduced in size, and more covered with mosses and lichens. From this point upward these
rapidly increase, so that the blocks of rock and scoria that form the mountain slope are com-
pletely hidden in a mossy vegetation. At about 8,000 feet European forms of plants become
abundant. Several species of honeysuckle, St. John's-wort, and Guelder-rose abound, and at
about 9,000 feet we first meet with the rare and beautiful Royal Cowslip (Primula imperial-
is), which is said to be found nowhere else in the world but on this solitary mountain sum-
mit. It has a tall, stout stem, sometimes more than three feet high, the root leaves are eight-
een inches long, and it bears several whorls of cowslip-like flowers, instead of a terminal
cluster only. The forest trees, gnarled and dwarfed to the dimensions of bushes, reach up to
the very rim of the old crater, but do not extend over the hollow on its summit. Here we find
a good deal of open ground, with thickets of shrubby Artemisias and Gnaphaliums, like our
southernwood and cudweed, but six or eight feet high; while Buttercups, Violets, Whortle-
