ng to
make our temporary abode. Here was a small clearing, with abundance of
tree-ferns and some young plantations of Cinchona. As there was now a
thick mist and drizzling rain, I did not attempt to go on to the summit
that evening, but made two visits to it during my stay, as well as
one to the active crater of Gedeh. This is a vast semicircular chasm,
bounded by black perpendicular walls of rock, and surrounded by miles
of rugged scoria-covered slopes. The crater itself is not very deep. It
exhibits patches of sulphur and variously-coloured volcanic products,
and emits from several vents continual streams of smoke and vapour. The
extinct cone of Pangerango was to me more interesting. The summit is
an irregular undulating plain with a low bordering ridge, and one deep
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
Musceae and Zingiberaceae, with their curious and brilliant flowers; and
the elegant and varied forms of plants allied to Begonia and Melastoma,
continually attract t