A Letter written on May 27, 1931

's Lands Planentuin, Buitenzorg, Java.
27, May 1931.

Dear Abby:

I appreciate the musical by-products very much, and I am so pleased that you think of me on such occasions. How I would love to hear Bach in such a beautiful Kirche! Eva had just written about hearing the St. Matthew Passion music in Philadelphia with Gabrilowitsch playing the cembalo (I was glad for a suggestion as to its nature - Eva did not give it). I am starved for music; I have heard very little and the best was at an afternoon tea near Ooty when Mrs. Powers (German but the widow of an American) played Beethoven - two somatas [sic] of which one was the Waldstein. It really wasn't a Tea; it was music for Olive Sarber and me preceded by a riotous tea. I feel as if I would have to have a mortal gorge next year.

But when I think how much work I am likely to accumulate in this heavenly spot, I am not sure I shall have time for anything - but... even in that frantic year before I came out to India I never missed a concert. I never can work quite all the time.

Eleanor brought your letter to me the afternoon I returned from a trip to Siam. Mrs. Davies, an Indian lady who was formerly on the staff at the W.C.C. lent us her car for the afternoon and then entertained us at dinner. We took my mail, the first I had had for over a month, and went to the Botanical Gardens. Eleanor derived considerably [sic] benefit from my mail and it happened fortunately that much of it was from people in whom she was interested. When I came to the part of your letter which spoke of her amazing results and that they must be checked, she said that was just what she had been doing in Singapore, checking them with rats; they checked and that raised more problems, but doubtless you will hear about it or perhaps have heard; she has had the trip ont he S.S. "Chantilly" since then and if it was as smooth as our trip to Singapore she might do a good deal to her correspondence.

Here I am in the Paradise especially created for Botanists; it is the best Tropical Garden in the world and the only one designed primarily for scientific purposes with a proper research laboratory. I am so happy that I know I shall never get away - I wouldn't if [I] could help myself.

I have had two days in the laboratory - and have had most interesting things happen. The Director, Dr. Doctors van Leeuven (isn't that an awkward name) offered to have ferns started for me before I came. The Assistant Director (or whatever Dr. Went is) started several things including Kaulfussia; I discovered this morning that they were going to germinate - a few had begun inside a sprangium. I have collected Schizaea digitata which I had collected at Perideniya; that is my most complete failure to date. I haven't had a total failure on anything else in which I had abundant material which seemed to be at the right stage. How I am going to try some other methods - I don't want to give in on it. The only Schizaea so far described is the American one and it is very pecuriar [sic], so I am very curious. I also expect to get Plagiogyria - one of Professor Bower's pets; it has always been rated as a Polypod and an advanced type until he took it and reduced it to a primitive type and gave it a family for itself. I am eaten with curiosity to see if the prothallia are of the polypod type or the primitive type. There are 3 species in Java and 5 in Formosa, and while I may not be able to get all, I ought to get enough to find out the type or whether there is any range of type. It will also be much easier to arrange to have material sent to me after having worked here; they will understand how it must be handled and shipped. I am sure that my Guardian Angel, my dear Dr. Went, will do it in proper style; he has offered to send me anything that I want which does not come into fruit while I am here. He is going to take me on a collecting trip on Sunday on Mt. Salak, an extinct volcano (it has been quiet since 1690, I think it is) which he said to be a good collecting ground for ferns and where I shall see Kaulfussia growing wild. Next week I hope to go to Tjibodas, the mountain station and make some more collections; while they germinate I may run off to East Java. I have a hankering to fly over a volcano; that is one of the attractions offered for Java. Doesn't that appeal to you? I really don't want to fly - my ten minutes at Croyden were not as bad as I expected but I did not acquire the taste - but flying over a volcano has a real lure.

The laboratory is a gem; I am working in a large room with places for 6. I have an alcove separated from the next by an 8 ft. partition (the ceilings are about 15 ft.); the alcove is 20 ft. wide and 15 deep (according to my pacing); it has one large table facing the windows (north) and another table almost as large on the side; there is a side bench with ovens, and there is a small sink. There are large sinks in the center of the room. CLEAN. I bumped my head on a window to-day because it was so clear I did not see it and thought it was open, and yet within an hour of that time I saw it washed just as if it needed it.

I have called on the Director, a very friendly Hollander of about 50 years and he gave me various bits of literature about the garden (all of which had prices on) and inquired if I had all that I needed and if I liked my hotel and if I had received the mail which he had sent to the hotel.

I am beginning to see why rijstaafel was invented. The working hours are from 7 to 2 when people go home to their reistaafel and afternoon naps; many of the shops close from 2 to 4, but some close from 4 to 5 - it is very disconcerting. If you work from 7 until 2 you need rijstaafel - you need lots of food and something that is all together - no dribbling out of courses. You really have all the foods of a course dinner but they come together. I have seen pictures of it served by 20 waiters, but that is not at the Ceres where I pay only 115 guilders a month. At the Ceres everything except the rice and one juicy curry is put on the table in separate dishes - the waiter also serves the chutneys. There are only 3 waiters here so that they cannot line up in a ceremonial procession as if they were serving haggis.

In every mail Eva forwards letters about Cyatheaceae which have gone to Mt. Holyoke and then been sent to her. It is very interesting. The choicest ones are Professor Bower's and Professor von Goebel's. Whenever I feel that I ought to have been taking in scrubbing instead of working at Botany I shall read Professor Bower's letter and look at the memorial which the students in Madras gave me before I left: I may need to frame them to convince others.

I had a very interesting trip to Siam - Chiengmai in northern Siam, where an old friend of mine is living; she and her husband are in the Presbyterian Mission. I was charmed with Siam; after living in India it was good to see a country where the people looked well-fed and prosperous, and the women went about as freely as Americans do. Siam is a great place. It is described as an "absolute monarchy" but that does not convey quite the right idea; the king is not absolute at all, but it is because the king has delegated his powers. There are laws and courts and councils, and even the king is bound by the laws. Dr. and Mrs. Cort were at the cottage up on a mountain near Chiengmai, 5600 ft., and it was just to my taste. I was cool for the first time since last September, cool enough for a long-sleeved dress, and at night I could wear a sweater and sleep under 2 blankets. It was a wonderful place for epiphytic orchids and we found over 20 species in bloom. I was instructed in the collecting by Hilda Cunliff whose step-father Mr. Stevens is Foreign Advisor to the King of Siam. Miss Cunliff was one of Lenette's students at the University of Wisconsin. She had worked out a technique of poking the orchids off the trees with a long bamboo pole. I tried it but was not very successful - I got tired keeping my head folded back. She is going to take them back to Bangkok and hopes to raise them.

I shall put in a few pictures which I had intended to send you some months ago; I took them in Travancore during the Christmas holidays. I am really enjoying my camera. I hope you can stand seeing my pictures when I return; I am putting them in albums which makes it easier to look at them.

It would be so nice to get another letter from you before I return. I shall be here until July 1st and after that my address will be c/o Thos. Cook & Son, Hongkong. I shall be there July 8th and again after my trip to Formosa to the Hibinos. Dr. and Mrs. Went knew them when Dr. Hibino was working in Utrecht, and them [sic] seemed very pleased to learn that I knew them. They said that Dr. Hibino told Japanese fairy tales in a delightful manner. I am looking forward with a great deal of interest to my visit there. Dr. Hibino wrote me a very cordial letter and sent me a check list of Formosan plants - a fascinating list of ferns. I am planning to sail from Hongkong on the "Presidnt Cleveland" Aug. 18th; it is due in San Francisco Sept. 8th. I shall see very little of China and have only two days in Japan and a day in Honolulu, but Siam, Java and Forma make up for that.

Affectionately yours,
Alma

P.S. I shall enclose a sample copy of the first (perhaps the only) number of Java Jottings which will give the introduction to my life in Java - if you can read it. A