Europe : thus, they have their Hay month, their Wine month,
their Flower month ; and, unluckily for their nomenclature,'
as used in this place, their Winter month happens when the sun
is nearly vertical. Who would have suspected that the
Brumaire, the Germinal, the Floreal, and almost the whole of
the Trench republican calendar, were stolen from their Dutch
friends, who have been in the constant use of it for centuries
past ? It is doubtful if the French will retain it so long,
and whether, in their thirst, for novelty, they may not propose
to compliment the present august family on the throne
by a transfer of their names to the calendar months, or, which
would be more convenient for themselves and the rest of
Europe, revert to the old ones which have stood the test of
so many ages.
I t has been observed that metals and other valuable productions
of the mineral kingdom are usually found in the
greatest abundance under poor and barren soils. Admitting
the converse of this observation to be true, the surface of the
island of Java, covered with a fertile soil and clothed with a
redundant vegetation, holds out little encouragement for the
researches of the mineralogist. There are, it is true, hio-h
arid naked mountains in the central parts of the island,
■whose summits are occasionally wrapt in snow, and sometimes
involved in the smoke of volcanic fires; but little is
known of their structure and materials. Various eruptions
are said to have happened since the Dutch first settled on the
island, and slight shocks of earthquakes have frequently
been felt; and in several places near the feet of the mountains
are thermal springs, whose waters are impregnated with
iron. ( Beyond these facts little if any thing is known to the
Dutch. The soil of the island may generally be considered
as pure vegetable mould, resting on clay, or argillaceous iron
stone, or coarse lime-stone 'of a loose and porous texture, the
remains, perhaps, of coral rocks crumbled into amorphous
masses by the all-destroying hand of time. The northern
coast is almost wholly girt by coral fabrics.
There are not, probably, many spots on the globe which,
on the same spacè, can boast of so rich and varied a fund
of vegetable productions as are to be found on the island of
Java ; of trees so remarkable for the grandeur and elegance
of their appearance, the beauty and fragrance of their
flowers, and the richness and variety of their fruits. To
enumerate the valuable articles it produces towards supplying
the necessities, the conveniencies, and the luxuries of'
mankind is a task for which I am not prepared, nor, if I
were, would it be consistent with -the plan of the present
work, which professes only general description and observation
; I shall mention, therefore, such only as are most re-
makable for their beauty, utility, or some peculiar quality,
in the neighbourhood of Batavia.
Among the grand and numerous tribe of palms, the cocoa
claims the first distinction. This tall and majestic tree, so
abundantly spread over the low coasts of most of the Oriental
islands, appears to be in Java of more luxuriant growth than
I remember to have seen it elsewhere, towering sometimes to
the astonishing height of 150 feet. The nilt, when young,
contains a milky fluid, of which the natives are excessively