lateral chasm. Unfortunately, there was perpetual mist and rain either
above or 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 composites 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 abundance 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 beautiful. 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
Musaceae and Zingiberaceae, 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 in
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 species. 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 completely
hidden in a mossy vegetation. At about 5,000 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 imperialis), which is said to
be found nowhere else in the world but on this solitary mountain summit.
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