Across the Equator: A Holiday Trip in Java

by Thomas H. Reid

A fair rate of speed is maintained, and it is possible to go from Batavia to Sourabaya, at the other end of the island, in two days. The trains, of course, as in the Federated Malay States, run only from sunrise to sundown, and the through traveller between the two principal towns must sleep the night at Maos, where a commodious pasanggrahan or rest-house provides clean, comfortable accommodation and wholesome food. Only on two occasions were we belated on the railway, and both instances were due to the one cause,—a wash-out on the line at Moentilan, the result of a severe thunder and rain storm on the previous day and night. The train was run down cautiously to the gap, passengers crossed over on a temporary bridge to the train waiting on the other side, and the baggage was transferred by a host of coolies. All this had to be done in a torrential rain-storm, but the railway officials did all in their power to make the conditions as little disagreeable as possible, and the only inconvenience was the late arrival of some of the baggage at Djocjakarta.

There was not much of interest on the morning run to Buitenzorg, but the Dutch lady who carried on an animated conversation with four gentlemen for the whole of the hour and a half introduced to us the possibilities for expression in the Dutch equivalents of "Yes" and "No."

We had been prepared by Miss Scidmore's book for the beauties of Buitenzorg, and for once expectation was more than realised.

The Dutch Governor-General van Imhoff was certainly well advised when he selected this position as the official residence of the Governor-General, and the Dutch horticulturists, than whom there are probably none better, deserve to be congratulated upon the garden city they have created out of the primeval jungle.

Part of the old palace was built by Governor-General Mossel, one hundred and fifty years ago, and the original received additions during the reigns of Daendels and Raffles. This structure was destroyed by an earthquake in 1834, and the new palace, the first glimpse of which one receives across an artificial lake, is a worthy residence for the administrator of the Dutch Indies. The surface of the lake is studded with lotus flowers and victoria regia, and the little island in the centre displays a wealth of the red or rajah palm, feathery yellow bamboo, and dark-green foliage which the lake mirrors in ever-changing pictures.

An Alma Tadema or a Marcus Stone would revel in the flowers and marbles of the palace, with its broad stairs and corridors and fine Ionian columns and cornices; and a Landseer or a MacWhirter might find endless subjects in the deer park by which it is surrounded.

The garden is a botanist's paradise. Tropical treasures from Nature's storehouse, collected by successive Directors, are arranged with care and precision characteristically Dutch. It was established in 1817 by Professor Reinwardt, and many distinguished botanists who have left their mark in the scientific world studied here and added to the collections. As may be imagined, the Dutch were not content with a mere show place for tropical specimens, and they established five mountain gardens where experiments are conducted, for practical and scientific purposes, in the cultivation of flowers, plants, vegetables and trees usually found in temperate regions. These gardens are situated in the mountains to the south—at Tjipanas, Tjibodas, Tjibeureum, Kadang Badoh, and on the top of Mount Pangerango, that is to say, at heights ranging from 3,500 ft. to 10,000 ft. The garden at Tjibodas remains, and at the Governor-General's summer villa at Tjipanas one might imagine one's-self in a private garden in Surrey or Kent.

In the buildings at Buitenzorg, facilities are afforded for foreign students, and at the time of our visit a Japanese Professor, from the Tokio University, who had studied for three and a half years in Berlin, was making an exhaustive investigation on scientific lines. Everything that can be of service to students of botany is to be found here in the museum, herbarium and library.

The general herbarium has been arranged on the Kew model. Besides a large collection of plants made by Zollinger between 1845 and 1858, it contains the valuable collections gathered by Teysmann, between 1854 and 1870, throughout the Malay Archipelago. Specimens by Kurz and Scheffer are also found, together with other recent collections of plants from Borneo and adjacent islands. Duplicates from the Herbarium at Kew Gardens and from several of the more famous European herbaria are to be found here, as well as numerous specimens from the botanical institutions of the British Colonies.

The Herbarium Horti contains the necessary materials for the compilation of the new catalogue of the Botanic Gardens, and the Herbarium Bogoriense contains plants to be found in the neighbourhood of Buitenzorg.