Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 67.djvu/587

Rh abundance of plant individuals and plant species. Still I doubt if any one who has not actually visited a wet tropical region can have a very clear idea of the real luxuriance of Buitenzorg. In an ordinary temperate forest the number of species of trees can almost be counted on the fingers of two hands; the species in a northern coniferous forest might be counted on the fingers of a single hand. In a west Java forest there may easily be fifty species of trees within a distance of as many feet from an observer. In the whole island of Java there are

probably a thousand different kinds of arborescent plants—perhaps more.

In the botanical garden an attempt is made to assemble the various plants of the Dutch East Indies and also to get the more notable species from other lands. This garden should be especially useful at this time to American botanists who may be intending to work in the Philippines. Java belongs to the same floral region as the American East Indies, and our islands will doubtless show some likenesses and differences in flora, which will be of great interest. At Buitenzorg the visiting botanist has before him, in well organized form, an epitome of all tropical botany.

Aside from any special interest which American botanists might have in Buitenzorg, there are countless objects of general botanical interest to be seen there. One who keeps in touch with modern