the same species grown in our hothouses. This can easily
be explained. The plants can rarely he placed in natural
or very favourable conditions. The climate is either too
hot or too cool, too moist or too dry, for a large proportion
of them, and they seldom get the exact quantity of shade
or the right quality of soil to suit them. In our stoves
these varied conditions can be supplied to each individual
plant far better than in a large garden, where the fact that
the plants are most of them growing in or near their
native country is supposed to preclude the necessity of
giving them much individual attention. Still, however,
there is much to admire here. There are avenues of
stately palms, and clumps of bamboos of perhaps fifty
different kinds; and an endless variety of tropical shrubs
and trees with strange and beautiful foliage. .As a change
from the excessive heats of Batavia, Buitenzorg is a
delightful abode. It is just elevated enough to have
deliciously cool evenings and nights, hut not so much as
to require any change of clothing; and to a person long
resident in the hotter climate of the plains, the air is
always fresh and pleasant, and admits of walking at
almost any hour of the day. The vicinity is most picturesque
and luxuriant, and the great volcano of Gunung-
Salak, with its truncated and jagged summit, forms a
characteristic background to many of the landscapes. A
great mud eruption took place in 1699, since which date
the mountain has been entirely inactive.
On leaving Buitenzorg, I had coolies to carry my
baggage and a-horse for myself, both to be changed every
six or seven miles. The road rose gradually, and after the
first stage the hills closed in a little on each side, forming
a broad valley; and the temperature was so cool and
agreeable,-and the country so interesting, that I preferred
walking. Native villages imbedded in fruit trees, and
pretty villas inhabited by planters or retired Dutch
officials, gave this district a very pleasing and civilized
aspect; but what most attracted my attention was the
system of terrace-cultivation, which is here universally
adopted, and which is, I should think, hardly equalled in
the world. The slopes of the main valley, and of its
branches, were everywhere cut in terraces up to a considerable
height, and when they wound round the recesses
of the hills produced all the effect of magnificent amphitheatres.
Hundreds of square miles of country are thus
terraced, and convey a striking idea of the industry of the
people and the antiquity of their civilization. These
terraces are extended year by year as the population
increases, by the inhabitants of each village working in
concert under the direction of their chiefs; and it is
perhaps by this system of village culture alone, that such
extensive terracing and irrigation has been rendered possible.
It was probably introduced by the Brahmins from
India, since in those Malay countries where there is no
trace of a previous occupation by a civilized people, the