JAVA JOTTINGS Vol. I, No. 2.
2, June 1931.
Buitenzorg, Java
WEATHER. It is doing very well, but the Editor is obliged to note that twice this past week it has rained out of hours; this very day it began at 1 o'clock while everbody was still busy in the laboratorium. When the rain comes early the afternoon is apt to be cool, judging from the two cases, and one can wear a light sweater with comfort, a sleeveless sweater. On three days it has not rained, but it cooled off in the evening just as if it had.
SCIENTIFIC NEWS. The Editor is not sure just what this should include. She has now many cultures of fern spores but it is too early to know whether or not some of them are really cultures - are they cultures if nothing grows? Osmunda Banksiana, Trichomanesm Hymenolepis and an Alsophila are growing but she fears that Kaulfussia and Schizaea digitata are going to be coy. She has 7 cultures of Schizaea on different media and hopes to catch it unawares.
EXCURSIONS. On Sunday, Dr. Went conducted an excursion to Mt. Salak to enable the Editor to see Kaulfussia (which is more properly called Chistensenia) on its native heath. The party consisted of Dr. Prof. Bouillenne and Madam Bouillenne (incorrectly spelled in No. I) of Liege, Belgium, Mrs. Went, Miss Pollak (spelling uncertain) who is working at the Treub Laboratorium also; Mr. -----, Dr. Went and the Editor. We went by automobile about 10 kilometers and then attached to ourselves two coolies to carry the vasculum (of a monstrous size), the ruckseck and baskets with food and drink, and other impediments. We walked for nearly an hour up the gentle slopes covered by tea plantations and then plunged into the forest along a path which was man-sized in width but not in height. The Editor was so charmed with the beautiful Selanginellan especially a large one of an irridescent blue that she had great difficulty in keeping her feet. After reaching a brook the party began a steep ascent to the lair of the Christensenia. The Editor used her hands freely to aid her in the ascent until the coolie in front of her encountered a scorpion and was stung on the foot (apparently not badly). Then she decided to keep her hands off the ground and her hands are not as tough as the coolie's foot. After an ascent of considerable distance Dr. Went plunged off into a ravine on a scouting expedition. After some minutes he shouted to come on and we made our way into the ravine as best we could; the bank was very steep, very wet, and very much covered with lianas (vines) which have a nasty way of catching the foot or pulling the hair. Only 3 Christensenias were on exhibition and they were not lusty. The ravine was the richest place the Editor has ever seen - the "Riotous luxuriance" of which she studied in her youth when she read of the tropical rain forest. After a vain search for sisters to the 3 plants the party started down to the brook and reached it so soon that the Editor decided that it had not been a long climb. They then ascended a tributary of the brook for an hour or more, collecting orchids and ferns; Gleichenias (2 species not in fruit), tree ferns, Cyathea and Alsophila, an orchid which looks like a fern (two, in fact), and several species of filmy ferns. Altogether it was a beautiful place. Dr. Went finally announced that we were not likely to find anything new unless we went several hours farther and got on the steep slope, so we descended again to the brook where Madam Bouillenne and Mrs. Went served a light lunch of biscuits, bananas and water - boiled water in bottles. Then we went up the brook to a water-fall and pool known as the "Nymphes pool." The pool is a favorite bathing place; the water is cold and the air was actually chilly - so deep is the ravine. We had to wade almost to our knees to reach the pool. The walls of the ravine were rich with ferns and mosses, also liverworts.
The Editor wore her new shoes on the trip. When the trip was projected Madam Bouillenne told her she must wear trousers and spiked shoes. Then she realized that it was a good thing that she had not left her trunk with the steamship company as her only trousers - her heavy Kashmir trousers - were in the trunk. It was a blow to find that she must have spiked shoes as her one aim in life (aside from botanical aims) has been to reduce her saman and to discard articles from her wardrobe.
She "counts that day lost, whose low-descending sun,
Sees in her wardrobe, no garment that can be thrown."The spiked shoes cost only Fl. 5 1/2 ($2.20); they are a good thing and will be needed again when the Editor goes to Tjibodas, especially if she ascends Pangarango which is nearly 3000 m.
The return expedition encountered rain; it began to rain gently about 12, and continued all afternoon. We reached the automobiles about 12:45, more or less damp, but the rain was no worse than the wet wild woods which were very wet from the rain of the day before and the day before that, etc.
It was a most enjoyable excursion; the Editor contrasted it with her expeditions in Hakgala, Ceylon, where her attendance was more concerned with keeping her intact than in finding ferns; on the present occasion no one seemed unduly concerned about her skin or bones and did not help her unnecesarily. [sic] She would rather be a Botanist than a Lady.
SOCIETY NEWS. The Editor took dinner at the home of Dr. Doctors van Leeuwen, Monday night, June 1st. She went at 8, according to invitation, and was received by Dr. Doctors van Leeuwen and his sister-in-law, Miss Reinwaan, whom she had met in the morning when she was called upon the Editor in the Treub Laboratorium. Miss Doctors van Leeuven, who is a student in the University of Amsterdam, appeared shortly; Mrs. Doctors van Leeuvan is in Holland at present. Dr. Doctors van Leenwen said he had been to Holland twice since he had come to Buitenzorg 22 years ago; he has a leave every 6 years but he prefers to visit other countries. We sat for half an hour or more and the Editor was offered a "short drink" or a "long drink" and cigrettes [sic], as at Dr. and Mrs. Went's who explained to her what was meant by long and short - more accurately weak and strong. The dinner was very good and the talk was interesting. About 10 o'clock the first patter of rain was heard and the Editor scuttled, and managed to reach her hotel before the real downpour began. The Director lives in the Botanical Garden, just beside the Treub Laboratorium; he has a private laboratory in a more secluded spot.
The Editor thinks that a branch of the Society for the Suppression of the Nutmeg ought to be formed in Java. She has encountered no such flagrant mis-use of it as the common American one of putting it in apple pie, but that is because there is no apple pie. Nothing is safe. It may appear in the soup, in croquettes, in meat cakes, in any vegetable and in desserts; as yet it has not appeared in the fruit courses (probably because of the difficulty of getting it under the skin) or in the tea. But the Editor remembers tea with cinnamon in Kashmir and would not be surprised to have tea with nutmeg in Java. Dinner is the meal which suffers most from nutmeg, and the Editor retires to her room and cheers herself with some of the cinnamon bark which she gathered in the woods in Siam. There is always plenty to eat without the nutmegged-dish; the Editor does not want any of her Dear Readers to weeep long over her sad plight.
The Editor is planning to go to Batavia tomorrow chiefly to consult the Travel Bureau on ways of going to Formosa, to see if it can be done in less than two weeks. On Thursday she is going to Tjibodas to stay several days and hopes to return bulging with ferns. Tjibodas has an altitude of 1410 m. That will be chilly. The trip will be by automobile, all alone, alas! There is a laboratory there with 3 tables for visitors, also a rest-house. ... The Director said last night that he m[i]ght get me a pass for my trip to East Java. Hurray for the Dutch Government!