The
plants can rarely be placed in natural or very favourable
conditions.
The climate is either too hot or too cool, too moist
or too dry, for a large proportion of them, and they seldom get
the exact quantity of shade or the right quality of soil to suit
them. In our stoves these varied conditions can be supplied to
each individual plant far better than in a large garden, where
the fact that the plants are most of them growing in or near
their native country is supposed to preclude, the necessity of
giving them much individual attention. Still, however, there is
much to admire here. There are avenues of stately palms, and
clumps of bamboos of perhaps fifty different kinds; and an
endless variety of tropical shrubs and trees with strange and
beautiful foliage. As a change from the excessive heat of
Batavia, Buitenzorg is a delightful abode. It is just elevated
enough to have deliciously cool evenings and nights, but not so
much as to require any change of clothing; and to a person long
resident in the hotter climate of the plains, the air is always
fresh and pleasant, and admits of walking at almost any hour of
the day. The vicinity is most picturesque and luxuriant, and the
great volcano of Gunung Salak, with its truncated and jagged
summit, forms a characteristic background to many of the
landscapes. A great mud eruption took place in 1699, since which
date the mountain has been entirely inactive.
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