Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 13.djvu/630

 602 JAVA In a country of such bold and varied relief as Java, the rainfall naturally differs very strikingly according to locality both in annual amount and in distribution in time. In 1878, for example, the number of rainy days (Natuurk. Tijds. voor Ned. Ind., 1880) was for Batavia (at 23 feet above the sea-level) 131, at Buitenzorg (1069 feet) 220, at Wiradessa in Pekalongan (at the sea-level) 118, and so on. According to the Batavian observations for 1864-1878, the following figures show the annual rainfall: Inches. Inches. Inches. 1864 61-57 1809 76-22 1874 77-75 18G5 79 33 1870 80-78 1875 75-82 1866 84-88 1871 89-40 1876 96-57 1867 91-65 1872 98-58 1877 55-35 1868 54-21 1873 5G-77 1878 59-60 This gives a mean annual fall of 75 - 89 inches. During these fifteen years the largest amount registered for any twenty-four hours was 6 9 inches ; and during the thirteen years from 1866 to 1878 the largest amount registered in any single hour was 3 6 inches. More than half of the annual amount of rain on an average falls in the three months December, January, and February. The following figures are the percentages for all the months according to the 1864-1878 observations : 21-0 May .. . 4 4 ... 3-8 February March

.18-5 9-4 5-9 June July 4-9 2-J . 2 5 October November 6-2 6-4 14-2 Between 1867 and 1877 1041 thunderstorms were observed at Batavia, November, December, and January being the months with the greatest number, and June, July, and August those with the least. 1 Vegetation. The vegetation of Java is rich and diver sified. Few of the plants being deciduous, the island at all times presents the same appearance as the most fertile temperate regions at the height of summer. The villages and even the smaller towns are in great measure concealed from view by the abundant and abiding verdure ; and their position in the landscape is to be recognized mainly by the different appearance presented by their groves and orchards. The character of the vegetation as a matter of course varies with the character of the soil ; but at once more obvious and more general are the modifications conditioned by in crease of elevation. Junghuhn divided the island into four botanical zones, and his division has been commonly adopted by his successors. The first or tropical zone extends from the seaboard to a height of 2000 feet ; the second or that of moderate heat has its upper limit at a height of about 4500 feet ; the third or comparatively cool region reaches a height of 7500 feet ; and the fourth or coldest region comprises all that lies above that elevation. It need hardly be added that the lines of demarcation are far from rigid, and, if they were to follow the actual appearance of certain definite vegetable forms, would dip and rise at every advance. It is at once evident also that from the structure of the island the lowest zone has by far the most extensive area ; the second indeed is only a fiftieth of the first, and the third is only a five-thousandth. The lowest zone is the region of the rice-fields and sugar planta tions, of cocoa-nuts, cinnamon, and cotton. According to their character the coasts are fringed with mangroves, nipah, and other palm trees, and the kayu gabas (Alstonia scholaris) ; the ponds and lakelets are covered with Utricu- larise and lotus flowers ; vast prairies are clothed with the silvery alang-alang grass, broken by thickets of bamboos and patches of the taller cri grass and glagah. The second zone is the region more especially of the coffee and the tea plantations, of the arerig or sugar palm, and of maize. In the forests there is a great profusion of woody lianas, rotangs, and cissus varieties. In the third zone, which consists mainly of the slopes of volcanic mountains, but also comprises a few plateaus, there is little cultivation except in the Tenger mountains, where the natives raise Indian corn, cabbage, and potatoes, and at Simpungan 1 See Observations made at the Magnetical and Meteorological Obser vatory at Batavia (vol. i., 1871; vol. iv., 1879). (the highest village in Java, 6680 feet) on the Dieng plateau, where even tobacco is most successfully culti vated. The fourth zone, so far as phanerogamous plants are concerned, has a very restricted vegetation, somewhere about one hundred species being known ; but there is a corresponding abundance of cryptogams : fungi are com mon, and mosses cover the ground and invest the trees. The whole flora of this upper region bears a strong Euro pean cast. According to a writer in the Tijdsclirift ran Nijvcrhcid en Landbouw, 1879, not less than one-fourth to one-fifth of the area of Java is still covered with forest, in spite of the fact that in various quarters reckless destruction has been allowed to go on. The abundant moisture of the vegetation happily prevents the spread of the fires by which the natives often clear the prairies or jungles. Extensive tracts of virgin forest exist, more particularly in the south of the residencies of Bantam, the Preanger Regencies, Banyumas, Pasuruan, Kediri, Probolingo, Besuki, and Banyuwangi ; and many of the principal mountains G. Ayang, G. Tjerme, G. Slamat, G. Wilis, G. Ardjunft,, G. Kaon, &c. still preserve their natural covering of luxuriant foliage. In the first zone the forests are largely composed of Magnoliacese, and Anonaccse ; but the loftiest trees are rather the Mimusops acuminata, the Spathodca gigantea, and the Irina glabra, which reach a height of 120 feet. In the second zone the first rank must be given to the rasamala (Liquidambar Altingia), the trunks of which run straight up for 90 or 100 feet before they break into branches. The tree, however, is only found in the Preanger Regencies and the contiguous portions of Buitenzorg. Among the other trees more generally characteristic of the zone are the puspa (Schima Noronhse], yielding fine, red, heavy timber, the ki sapi (Gordonia excelsa), the gadok (Bischofiajavanica], the bayur (Pterospcrmum Blumeanum], and Epicharis densiflora. Throughout the greater part of both the lower regions the banyan-tree and several closely allied forms are extremely common. Hitherto comparatively little advantage has been taken of the Javanese wealth of timber. If the native states and Madura be left out of account, all the woods and forest, with the exception of such portions as have been formally disposed of to private possessors, are considered as Government property, and are managed under a new system introduced in 1874. By this the teak forests or planta tions are singled out for particular treatment. They exist in the resi dencies of Tagal, Samarang, Japara, Surabaya, Madiun, Kediri, and are estimated to occupy 2300 square miles. The seaports where the timber trade is chiefly carried on are Batavia, Samarang, Surabaya, and Gresik. The net profit realized by the Government from the forest department was only 58,000 in 1879. Reforesting has been commenced in various places more parti cularly on the Sumbing, Seudarit, Merbabu, and Unarang. The Eucalyptus globulus, the jnar (Cassia florida, Vahl), a rapidly growing tree indigenous to Sumatra, and the surian (Cedrela febri- fuga, Bl.), are being largely employed by the Government for this purpose. Zoology. In respect of its fauna, Java differs from Borneo, Sumatra, and the Malay peninsula far more than these differ among themselves ; and at the same time it shows close resemblances not exhibited by Borneo and Sumatra to the Siamese peninsula and also to the Hima layas. No genus and only five or six of the ninety species of Javanese mammals are confined to the island ; and of the two hundred and seventy species of land birds only forty are peculiar. Thirteen genera of mammals, includ ing the elephant, the tapir, and the Malay bear, found in the rest of the Malay region, are altogether absent; and twenty-five Malayan genera of birds- comprising jays, gapers, bee-eaters, woodpeckers, hornbills, cuckoos, pheasants, and partridges are in like case. 2 The Javanese rhinoceros, the largest of the mammals in the island, differs from that of Sumatra in having only one horn instead of two. It ranges over the highest mountains, and its regular paths worn into deep channels may be traced up the steepest slopes and round the rims of even active volcanoes. Of wild swine there are two species, Sus vittatus in the hot region and Sus rcrrucosus in the temperate. Both are extremely abundant, and their depreda tions are the cause of much loss ; in the residency of Japara, for instance, upwards of five thousand have been killed in two months. Not much less than the rhinoceros is the banting orSos sundaicus, to be found in all the uninhabited districts between 2000 and 7000 feet or deration. The kidang or mintjac (Ccrvulus muntjac) and the rusa (Rusa hipixlaplius] are the chief representatives of the deer 2 See A. K. Wallace, Island Life, 1881.