in many parts of the island, more especially in the Preanger and middle Java, where it occupies areas of hundreds of acres. The effect of mere altitude in the distribution of the flora was long ago emphasized by Friedrich Junghuhn, the Humboldt of Java, who divided the island into four vertical botanical zones--a division which has generally been accepted by his successors, though, like all such divisions, it is subject to many modifications and exceptions. The forest, or hot zone, extends to a height of 2000 ft. above the sea; the second, that of moderate heat, has its upper limit at about 4500; the third, or cool, zone reaches 7500; and the fourth, or coldest, comprises all that lies beyond. The lowest zone has, of course, the most extensive area; the second is only a fiftieth and the third a five-thousandth of the first; and the fourth is an insignificant remainder. The lowest is the region of the true tropical forest, of rice-fields and sugar-plantations, of coco-nut palms, cotton, sesamum, cinnamon and tobacco (though this last has a wide altitudinal range). Many parts of the coast (especially on the north) are fringed with mangrove (_Rhizophora mucronata_), &c., and species of _Bruguiera_; the downs have their characteristic flora--convolvulus and _Spinifex squarrosus_ catching the eye for very different reasons. Farther inland along the seaboard appear the nipa dwarf palm (_Nipa fruticans_), the _Alsbonia scholaris_ (the wood of which is lighter than cork), Cycadacea, tree-ferns, screw pines (_Pandanus_), &c. In west Java the gebang palm (_Corypha gebanga_) grows in clumps and belts not far from but never quite close to the coast; and in east Java a similar position is occupied by the lontar (_Borassus flabelliformis_), valuable for its timber, its sago and its sugar, and in former times for its leaves, which were used as a writing-material. The fresh-water lakes and ponds of this region are richly covered with Utricularia and various kinds of lotus (_Nymphaea lotus_, _N. stellata_, _Nelumbium speciosum_, &c.) interspersed with _Pista stratiotes_ and other floating plants. Vast prairies are covered with the silvery alang-alang grass broken by bamboo thickets, clusters of trees and shrubs (_Butea frondosa_, _Emblica officinalis_, &c.) and islands of the taller erigedeh or glagah (_Saccharum spontaneum_). Alang-alang (_Imperata arundinacea_, Cyr. var. Bentham) grows from 1 to 4 ft. in height. It springs up wherever the ground is cleared of trees and is a perfect plague to the cultivator. It cannot hold its own, however, with the ananas, the kratok (_Phaseolus lunatus_) or the lantana; and, in the natural progress of events, the forest resumes its sway except where the natives encourage the young growth of the grass by annually setting the prairies on fire. The true forest, which occupies a great part of this region, changes its character as we