crimson trumpets, or
delicately-tinted shells of ocean, comprise but a tithe of Nature's
wonders, crowned by the mighty "Rafflesia," the largest flower in the
world, with each vast red chalice often measuring a circumference of
six feet. A hundred native gardeners are employed in this park-like
domain, and seventy men work in the adjacent culture-garden of forty
acres, where experiments in grafting and acclimatizing are carried on,
as well as in the supplementary garden of Tjibodas, beautifully
situated on the lower slopes of Mount Salak. The white palace of the
Governor-General faces the lake, fed by the lovely river Tjiligong,
winding in silver loops round verdant lawn and palm-clad hill, or
expanding into bamboo-fringed lakes, and bringing perennial freshness
into the tropical Eden of sun-bathed Java.

Beyond the fretted arches of the great kanari avenue, the white tomb
of Lady Raffles, who died during her husband's term of office in the
island, forms a pathetic link with the past. When the colony was
restored to Holland, a clause in the treaty concerning it, made the
perpetual care of this monument, to one deeply loved and mourned,
binding upon the Dutch Governor--a condition loyally observed during
the century since the cessation of English rule. Cinnamon and clove
scent the breeze which whispers mysterious secrets to the swaying
plumes of the tall sago-palms, and dies away in the delicate foliage of
tamarind and ironwood tree. A network of air roots makes a grotesque
circle round the spreading boughs of the banyan grove, mahogany and
sandal-wood, ebony and cork, ginger-tree and cardamom, mingle their
varied foliage, the translucency of sun-smitten green shading through
deepening tones into the sombre tints of ilex and pine with exquisite
gradation. Flamboyant trees flaunt fiery pyramids of blossom high in
the air, and the golden bouquets of the salacca light up dusky avenues,
where large-leaved lianas rope themselves from tree to tree in cables
of vivid green. Bare stems, except in the palms, are unknown in this
richly-decorated temple of Nature; climbing blade-plants with
sword-like leaves of gold-striped verdure, huge orchids like
many-coloured birds and butterflies fluttering in the wind, wreathe
trunk and branch with fantastic splendour, and matted creepers weave
curtains of dense foliage from spreading boughs. The austere and scanty
vegetation of Northern climes, which gives a distinct outline and value
to