the West Indies, and the Malay name papaya comes
from the Spanish papa/yo.
At the height of one thousand feet ferns appear
in very considerable numbers, and here also the useful
bamboo grows in abundance, though it is found
all the way down to the level of the sea. Practically
this is a tree, but botanically it is grass, though it
sometimes attains a height of seventy or eighty feet.
It is used by the natives for the walls of their huts.
For this purpose it is split open and pressed out flat,
and other perpendicular and horizontal pieces hold
it in place. It is also used for masts, spear-handles,
baskets, vessels of all kinds, and for so many other
necessary articles, that it seems almost indispensable
to them. Its outer surface becomes so hard when
partially burned, that it will take a sharp, almost
cutting edge, and the weapons of the natives were
probably all made in this manner previous to the
introduction of iron. At the present time sharpened
stakes, rcmjcms, of this kind are driven into the
ground in the tall grass surrounding a lada/ng or
garden, so that any native with naked feet (except
the owner) will spear himself in attempting to approach.
I saw one man, on the island of Buru, who
had received a frightful, ragged wound in this way.
Above one thousand feet the palms, bananas, and
papilionaceous plants become fewer, and are replaced
by the lofty fig or wa/ringm, which, with its high
top and long branches, rivals the magnificent palms
by the sea-shore. The liquidambar also accompanies
the fig. Orchidaceous plants of the most wonderful
forms appear on the forest-trees, and are fastened
to them so closely, that they seem to be parts
of them. Here the ferns also are seen in great
variety. Lorcmthacece and Mela/nostomacece are found
in this zone. To this region belongs the beautiful
cotton-wood tree. Its trunk is seldom more than ten
or twelve inches in diameter, and rises up almost
perpendicularly thirty feet. The bark is of a
light olive-green, and remarkably smooth and fair.
The limbs shoot out in whorls at right angles to
the trunk, and, as they are separated by a considerable
space, their open foliage is in strong contrast to
the dark, dense jungle out of which they usually
rise. They thrive well also along the banks of
rivers. In Java these trees are frequently used as
telegraph-posts — a purpose for which they are admirably
adapted on account of their regularity. Besides,
any thing but a living post would quickly
decay in these tropical lands. The fruit is a pod,
and the fibrous substance it yields is quite like cotton.
I found it very suitable for stuffing birds.
Over this region of the fig comes that of oaks
and laurels. Orchidaceous plants and melastomas
are more abundant here.
Above five or six thousand feet are Bubiacece,
heaths, and cone-bearing .trees; and from this region
we pass up into one where small ferns abound, and
lichens and mosses cover the rocks and hang from
the trees. The tropical world is now beneath us,
and we are in the temperate zone.
The tops of all those volcanic mountains that are
tetill in a state of eruption are usually bare; and in
pthers so large a quantity of the sulphur they pro