Hooker's Journal of Botany v.

7 (1855) pp 78-841

Extracts of Letters from the Malayan Islands, addressed to Sir W.J.Hooker and to W.Mitten, Esq.;
by JAMES MOTLEY,Esq2.

TO W.MITTEN, ESQ.3

 Batavia, Oct. 9, 1854.

You will, I suppose, be surprised to receive a letter dated from this place; but I have now entered
into an arrangement with a Dutch Company, established here to work the mines of Netherlands'
India. We commence operations on a concession granted by Government to the Company, of nearly
500 square miles of coal-measures at Bansjarmassin4, which you will find nearly at the south point
of Borneo, and thither I now go as soon as a ship is procured. It is, I believe, a very fine country,
and will doubtless yield me some plants: the trip will of course delay very much my at present
projected collection, but will certainly enable me to make it more interesting by giving the north
and south range of many Grasses, over about ten degrees of latitude. I, of course must not now
restrict it to Singapore; say, "collected in the India Archipelago." I have got about thirty sets, of
perhaps sixty species each, already, and there are two or three common ones which I can pick up
any day to add to the list. This is my second visit to Java5. I came down at first about three months
ago to arrange all this matter6, and I then returned to Singapore7 for my family8; we landed here this
morning. We are in capital quarters, in the house of a Dr Burger9, who is one of the Directors of the
Company10; he was formerly for many years attached to the Government Natural History staff, and
was with Van Siebold11 for a long time in Japan, of which his reminiscences are very interesting; he
is a botanist, too, as well as a zoologist, so we get on famously. When here before, having to remain
six weeks, I took the opportunity of going up to the mountains. I first spent several days at the
Botanic Garden at Buitenzorg12; the sub-curator, Mr Bennendyk13, is a good botanist, and was very
kind indeed in showing me everything. I had the opportunity of seeing the new Rafflesia
(Brugmansia) Zippelii14 in spirits, and of examining fresh fruit of Azolla15 and Salvinia16, and of
studying a noble collection of Orchids and Palms. Of the latter the collection is very numerous; but
though I knew sixty at Labuan, I only recognised about a dozen of them here. How many Palms
exist in these wonderful countries who shall say? After seeing the garden, I made a trip into the
mountains, remaining nearly a week at Ivegoe17, about 4000 feet above the sea. I think, had you
been with me, you would have almost gone crazy as I did at the Cryptogams; every tree, from leaf
to branch, was covered with Mosses, Hepaticae, and Lichens, to say nothing of Orchids and Ferns.
No words can express the beauty of the jungle. The most productive places, however, I found to be
the old coffee plantations, where the scrubby crooked trees were almost borne to the ground by the
weight of parasites. Here a great epiphytal Ficus18 or Fagraea19 mounted on high, far thicker and
stronger than its supporter; and there a perfect blaze of scarlet Aeschynanthus20, streaming down
from the huge matted tufts of Asplenium21 or Acrostichum22; ship loads of Vanda speciosa and
odoratissima, Saccolabia, Dendrobia, Ephipphia23, any one of which would have carried off all the
prizes at Chiswick24, and sent all the gardeners into fits; and in every damp hollow groves of
Dicksonias, Alsophilae, and Marattiae25, some rising forty or fifty feet, whose marvellous elegance
and beauty, swept by the wind, neither pen nor pencil can tell. Aroideae26 are in great force, and of
very various forms, as are also parasitical Rhododendra, Thibaudiae27, and such plants.
Melastomaceae are very prevalent here especially the genus Medinilla28; most of them are semi-
parasitic trailing plants, and hang in great masses from the trunks of the trees. But the Mosses and
Hepaticae29 enticed me most, for these I could collect; while it was impossible, in my hurried trip,
to dry other plants. Some of the pendent Hepaticae and Neckerae30 are a foot or more long; the
effect of large masses of them is most beautiful, especially intermixed as they are with long bunches
of the white Usnea31 like U.florida. I believe I have collected about two hundred species of
Hepaticae, Musci, and Lichens, and the greater part of them in fruit. I shall be able, I think, to make
from twenty to thirty sets when I have time to open them; at present I have just dried and packed
them up in a box, which it will be several months before I am able to attack; you shall receive some
early specimens when I do get at them. The natives here are very capital intelligent fellows; I had
three of them with me each day, with baskets, for which I paid one rupee, or about sixteen pence,
and they seemed quite delighted. They soon found out what I wanted, and I owe many of the
specimens in fruit to their sharp eyes. When I found a species barren, I just showed it them and told
them where I expected to find the fruit proceeding from, and they rarely failed to find it before long;
they seemed, too, to identify themselves so with the matter, and showed such emulation as to who
should be the first to find something new, it was quite pleasant to be with them, -- I might have
fancied myself among botanists; these mountaineers, however, are botanists to an extent you would
hardly expect amongst so-called savages. Every plant has its native name, and given upon the
system of generic and specific names; for instance when I asked a man the name of a little
Pavetta32, he said at once, "I never saw this before, and I don't know its own name, but its 'mother
name' is so and so," mentioning the native generic term for Pavetta Ixora33 and such plants in
general. The authors of the catalogue of the Buitenzorg Garden34 have thought these names worth
recording, and I think they are right; for I saw many plants I should not have seen, especially among
the Ericeae35, but by asking for them by such names given in the catalogue; and it is wonderful, on
looking these over, to find how well the system is carried out. It is of course imperfect, but
remarkable for people with no written language;- they do not speak Malay or Javanese 36, but a
peculiar dialect called Sundanese37. When I was tired of Ivegoe, or rather when I had spent as much
time as I could afford there, I went on about twenty miles farther to Chepanas38, where there is a
regular European garden, to supply vegetables for the Governor's table. It was pleasant enough to
see their beet and lettuces, etc., growing very finely. There is a pond, also, with some Salix
Babylonica39, but they look miserably, as do the European fruit-trees, though they seemed to grow
pretty quickly. The Plums appear to have most of the true flavour. The Apples certainly attain the
most perfect colour, and the Peaches, though they have a pretty good appearance, are said to be
quite tasteless; the fact is, the trees get no rest, so as to ripen any true bearing wood. The Apples
grow with long and ever-lengthening shoots, more like Osiers than their brethren in Europe. At this
place, which is in the midst of the plateau of the Preangu district, about 4000 feet above the level of
the sea, you have quite an Italian climate, and it is cold enough at night to make a blanket pleasant.
It takes its name, Chepanas or "hot river," from a warm spring close to the Governor's house, where
there is a convenient bath, very pleasant after a hard day's walking. There is a small botanic garden
here also, where they have a good many Japanese plants; but the most remarkable objects are two
specimens of the Norfolk Island Araucaria, perhaps sixty feet high, young trees, but in a state of
health and vigour which promises well for the future.
From Chepanas I made my last and crowning trip to the top of the Pangerongo Mountain 40, about
10,500 feet. I cannot pretend to tell you all the plants I saw; but you, who have never experienced
the sensation, cannot imagine how odd it was all at once to get again among forms41 such as two
species of Viola42, three Ranunculi43, three Impatiens44, Primula45, Hypericum46, Swertia47,
Convallaria48, Vaccinium49, Rhododendron50, Gnaphalium51, Polygonum52, Digitalis53 (?),
Lonicera54, Plantago55, Artemisia56, Lobelia57, Oxalis58, Quercus59, Taxus60, and about a dozen
species of Rubus61, - all beautiful plants. Primula imperialis62 only grows near the summit: it is a
charming species, the leaves like P. vulgaris, with an interrupted verticillate spike, sometimes three
feet high, of golden flowers. Hypericum Javanicum is also a fine plant, with the shrubby habit of
H.hircinum, but large solitary flowers like H.calycinum. Gnaphalium Javanicum is a woody shrub,
about six feet high, very ornamental. Up among these plants, amid the Moss which hangs on the
trees in masses as big as a man's body, are two very fine parasitical Orchids, a Dendrobium with
bright purple flowers, D. purpureum, and a little pseudobulbous plant with large flowers, like a
Cymbidium63; and yet these plants, often exposed to 36-38° Fahr., we should perhaps put at home
into an orchideous stove at 85° and then be surprised when they died. I was much astonished at the
distribution of plants of this tribe. I have often been puzzled why I did not get more species at
Labuan, and in other steamy hot places, down at the sea-level, where I believe most of the English
botanists would hope to find them: whereas at about 4000 feet, at a night temperature of 45° to 50°,
every tree is laden with them. Surely we are in the habit of coddling them (to use a Yorkshire word)
too much in our stoves: and when it is considered that a change of plan would bring these lovely
and curious plants within reach of many zealous cultivators, who cannot now afford the expense, it
would surely be worth some nurseryman's while to try the experiment, on a large scale, of cooler
houses for orchids.
I remained one night on the top of the mountain; it was exceedingly cold. I had forgotten to bring
up a thermometer, but water was frozen in a plate raised a couple of feet above the ground. There
are plenty of excellent strawberries here; they have of course been planted, but, so far as fruiting is
concerned, seem quite at home. I did not, however, see one stolon thrown out. They grow with scaly
stems in tufts, just like Dryas octopetala64. We saw nothing the evening we got up, as all was
enveloped in a wet searching mist, but in the morning I was amply repaid for my trouble. The
summit of the mountain, evidently an extinct volcano, is a sort of amphitheatre about 500 yards in
diameter, broken through on one side by a deep narrow ravine. This space has been cleared, and is
chiefly covered with strawberries; for the apples and other European trees planted there are so
covered with foliaceous Lichens, that they can hardly vegetate. The forest of crooked stunted
shrubs, chiefly Ericaceous, extends to the very verge of this amphitheatre outside. At sunrise I
climbed up to the ridge, and for half an hour had an uninterrupted view. I could see the sea to the
north and south of Java, and in the distance, to the south east chain upon chain of mountains, ending
at the sea, with the smoking summit of Janykuban-prahu65, which has, within a few years, been very
active. A heavy haze hung over Bulana66, so that I could not see it; but nearer to me, on both sides, I
looked over miles of cultivated country; the system of sawah or wet rice cultivation making the
country look half lakes and rivers. Nearer to the north-west, within about thirty miles, rose the
jagged peak of the Salac67, one of the best botanical mountains in Java, now all green and still,
though some seventy years ago it committed fearful havoc, and destroyed many lives; and to the
south, almost under my feet, gaped the white barren crater of Gédé68, another peak of the mountain
on which I stood - a slight smoke rising out of the unfathomable depths to testify that, though
slumbering, the fire-king was not yet dead69. You cannot conceive anything more sublime than the
bare walls of lava and the banks of white pumice, furrowed by the rains into deep ravines, and the
wreaths of blue smoke curling up in the sunrise, with the dark primeval forest creeping up in places
to the very edge of the abyss, or with countless dead grey branches silently attesting how different
the scene may sometimes be. If you add to this the huge masses of boiling clouds rolling over the
flanks of the mountain, now hanging at the very edge of the crater, and then sweeping rapidly down
to the plains, the strange ashy aspect of the nearest trees covered with pale Lichens, and the bright
blue tropical sky and rising sun, you may perhaps imagine something of a scene which I can neither
describe nor forget. I felt inclined to shout for joy, and I never even thought of the cold, until I tried
to sketch, and found my hands so numb I could not hold a pencil. I did manage, however, to get an
outline of the water. Coming down again was harder work than climbing up, and played the very
deuce with my knees; but nevertheless when I met Bennendyk half-way up, I was glad enough to
turn back with him. We took a short walk that afternoon to see a thicket of Rhododendron
Japanicum in flower. The plant is now, I believe, in England; and if it grows as it does here it is
almost the finest plant in the gardens; its beautiful flame-coloured blossoms are in great bunches of
twenty or more, and the colour is more dazzling than of any flower I know. I saw also two other
Rhododendra (R. rubriflorum, a beautiful scarlet, and R. album) in perfection, both very free
bloomers and very beautiful plants.
That night we remained in a small house on the mountains, and the next day we went up another
peak, and also to see some cataracts; of these there were three, falling at the head of a gorge over a
cliff, about a hundred and fifty feet high70. There was a fine supply of water, but in time of rain it
must be immense, judging from the quantity of stones and timber heaped below. The rocks covered
with Bartramia fontana71, a white Sphagnum72, and a deep red Hepaticous plant73, and with great
patches of the broad leaves of the Gunnera74, and a dark green Urticaceous plant, which seemed to
rejoice in the spray and foam. Large bushes of Acacia volcanica75, and a tall Saccharum76, were
scattered among damp stones covered with Mosses and Hepaticae. I gathered a curious Gyrophora77
in fruit, on a dead Fern trunk. The white Sphagnum I mentioned as abundant here, I saw in the
course of a single stream only, which rose in a hot-water spring half-way up, where it was very
abundant. Coming back I found a curious plant, Campanumoea Javanica78, a sort of climbing
Campanula, with greenish flowers, veined like the Henbane, and black pulpy fruit; it is a pretty
plant. The enormous size of the leaves of the under growth of these dells gives a most peculiar
character. Gunnera, Caladium79, and Musa80 occupy large spaces, and are eminently social plants. I
had this day the pleasure of seeing a Rhizantheous81 plant alive; it is a species of Balanophora82, and
grows nearly under ground, on the root of a Cissus83. The thallus, or whatever you may call it, is
slightly branched, fleshy, and glutinous, and is sought for by the natives, who dry and burn it for
torches1. Coming down, I had the pleasure of assisting in making the first plantation of Cinchona84
in Java, consisting of several hundred plants, which Bennendyk had come to plant half-way up the
mountain85. They are of the C. calisaya, known to produce the "Yellow-bark," the most precious of
all the cinchonas – J.M.

1 A European would as little expect such a property to exist in these plants as in our Latrea squamaria or Montropa
Hypopitus; yet of another Balanophorous plant, in New Granada, candles are made, of which samples are deposited
in our Museum of Economic Botany at Kew.-ED.
1 Also reproduced from “This is my second visit to Java...”, as 'Flora of Java', with slight editing and attributed to
James 'Mottley', in Floricultural cabinet and florists' magazine Apr 1855 pp 78-82.

Transcribed, annotated and hyperlinked by Martin Laverty, July 2010.

2 James Motley (1822-1859) was a Yorkshireman with strong links to S.Wales. He spent some time in S.Wales in the
1830's and worked there from 1843-1849. He went to Labuan in 1849 with his wife and brother, and had two
daughters there before leaving for Singapore in 1853. He spent 1854 partly working on a drainage plan for
Singapore, but also looking for work, and natural history, in Sumatra and Java before going back to Borneo. In
Australasia (1879), having quoted at length from Motley's only published geological account (of Labuan),
A.R.Wallace recorded his untimely end in a footnote:
“A few years after the date of this report, Mr.Motley, together with his wife and family, was killled during an
insurrection of the Malays at Banjarmassing on the south coast of Borneo, where he was supeintending a mine for
the Dutch Government. This gentleman was an excellent naturalist, and had he lived would probably have given us
much valuable information on these Tertiary coal-fields, which he had unrivalled opportunities of studying”.
Actually, the mine was private, but Motley had been planning to address the British Association for the
Advancement of Science on coal, and had collected and made notes on considerable numbers of plants, birds (some
of which Wallace acquired), mammals, and reptiles; he also collected rocks, fossils, shells, and insects but what
happened to these is unknown...
3 William Mitten (1819-1906), a bryologist (and father-in-law, from 1866, of A.R.Wallace)
4 Now Banjarmasin, the main town of SE Borneo
5 Motley had arrived in Singapore from Labuan in November 1853. A job in Sumatra seems to have fallen through.
6 A new job establishing and then managing the Julia Hermina coal mine in SE Borneo
7 Motley left Labuan in November 1853, after 4 ½ years establishing and managing the Eastern Archipelago
Company's coal mine there.
8 Wife and two daughters
9 Heinrich Burger (1804?-1858) German
10 The Company: de Maatschappij tot Bevordering van Mijnontginningen in Nederlandsch-Indië (Society for the
advancement of mining development in the Dutch Indies)
11 Philipp Franz von Siebold (1796-1866)
12 The Bogor Botanical Garden established by the Dutch in 1817 at the site of Raffles' residence in Buitenzorg
('without a care')
13 Actually, S. Binnendyk
14 Rafflesia Zippelii is now a synonym for Rhizanthes zippelii, closely related to Rafflesia
15 Azolla, an aquatic fern: the 'fruit' are rather small (!), but it is a useful plant
16 Salvinia is another genus of floating fern
17 Ivegoe is probably a misreading of Nagrok, (now Nagrak) some 10 miles S of Bogor, on the W slopes of
Pangrango: that would fit with a 20 mile onward journey to Chepanas.

A possible route for Motley's trip is shown here on part of Junghuhn's map of Java prepared from 1835 tot 1848:
18 Ficus, the figs
19 Fagraea,
20 Aeschyanthus, usually colourful epiphytic herbs
21 Asplenium, the spleenworts and bird-nest ferns
22 Acrostichum, a genus of large ferns
23 Genera of orchids, now named Vanda, Saccolabium, Dendrobium, Ephippianthus
24 The Horticultural Society of London held an annual flower show at its gardens in Chiswick before the Chelsea
Flower Show started in 1862.
25 Genera of tree-ferns, now named Dicksonia, Cyathea sect.Alsophila and Ptisana
26 Aroideae, the arums
27 Rhododendrons could have been native, but the Thibaudia are native to Central and S.America
28 Medinilla
29 Mosses and Hepaticae, (now, Marchantiophyta), or liverworts: two of the three groups in the bryophytes – Mitten's
speciality
30 Neckera is a genus of moss
31 Usnea , or Old Man's Beard, lichen
32 Pavetta,
33 Pavetta Ixora is now a synonym for Ixora pavetta ?
34 First published in 1844 by J.K.Hasskarl, another edition, Catalogus plantarum quae in Horto Botanico Bogoriensi,
by J.E.Teijsmann and S.Binnedijk, came out in 1866
35 Ericeae , the heaths and heathers
36 Javanese is the main language of NW, central and E Java; it is peculiar in having distinct informal, intermediate, and
polite forms, together with humble and honorific forms of address.
37 Sundanese is the main language of SW Java: it is peculiar in having distinct normal and polite forms.
38 Chepanas (Tjipannas in Dutch orthography)
39 Salix babylonica, a willow
40 Now written Pangrango, a volcano rising to 3,019m.
41 The following list is of plants of which most are associated with temperate environments.
This passage is especially interesting because Alfred Russel Wallace also spent some time on Pangorongo, 7 years
after Motley. He described it in a letter to his sister from 'the Mountains of Java' on October 10 1861: “There are lots
of strawberries planted there, which do very well, but there were not many ripe. The common weeds and plants of
the top were very like English ones, such as buttercups, sowthistle, plantain, wornwood, chickweed, charlock,
violets and many others, all closely allied to our common plants of those names, but of distinct species. There was
also a honeysuckle, and a tall and very pretty kind of cowslip..” (Marchant (1916) Vol 1, Alfred Russel Wallace,
Letters and Reminiscences)
In The Malay Archipelago (1869), he prefers to popularise Motley “Mr Motley, who visited the mountain in the dry
season, and paid much attention to botany gives the following list of genera of European plants found on or near the
summit:-- Two species of violets, three of ranunculus, three of impatiens, eight or ten of rubus, and species of
primula, hypericum, swertia, convallaria (lily of the valley), vaccinium (cranberry), rhododendron, gnaphalium,
polygonum, digitalis (foxglove), lonicera (honeysuckle), plantago (rib-grass), artemisia (wormwood), lobelia, oxalis
(wood-sorrel), quercus (oak), and taxus (yew) A few of the smaller plants (Plantago major and lanceolata, Sonchus
oleraceus, and Artemisia vulgaris) are identical with European species ”
In Australasia (1879), he acknowledges the source in 'Motley, Letters from Borneo, Hooker's Journal of Botany,
1850-56' and says: “The following genera, characteristic of northern temperate regions, were found upon the summit
by Mr Motley:-- Two species of violet, three of ranunculus, eight or ten of rubus, and species of primrose, St.John's
wort, swertia, lily of the valley, cranberry, rhododendron, gnaphalium, polygonum, foxglove, honeysuckle, plantain ,
wormwood, oak, and yew. ”
42 Viola, violets
43 Ranunculus, buttercups
44 Impatiens, balsams
45 Primula, primroses
46 Hypericum, St.John's worts
47 Swertia, feltworts, a genus of genian
48 Convallaria, lily of the valley
49 Vaccinium, bilberry
50 Rhododendron
51 Gnaphalium, cudweeds, a genus of daisy
52 Polygonum, knapweeds
53 Digitalis, foxgloves
54 Lonicera, honeysuckles
55 Plantago, plantains (not the banana sort)
56 Artemisia, wormwood, etc
57 Lobelia
58 Oxalis, wood sorrels
59 Quercus, oaks
60 Taxus, yews
61 Rubus, blackberries, etc
62 'at about 9000 feet we meet the rare and beautiful royal cowlslip
(Primula imperialis), which is said to be found nowhere else in
the world than on this solitary mountain summit. It has a tall,
stout stem, sometimes more than three feet high, the root-leaves
are eighteen inches long, and it bears several whorls of
cowslip-like flowers, instead of a terminal cluster only.'

A.R.Wallace from The Malay Archipelago

on his ascent of Pangorongo in October 1861.

63 Cymbidium, an orchid
64 Dryas octopetala, is a familiar alpine plant in Europe and America, used here for illustration: not growing in Java.
65 A misreading of Tangkuban Prahu, an active volcano
66 A misreading of Batavia?
67 Now written Salak
68 Gédé the active volcano

as depicted before 1849 by German botanist and surveyor

Junghuhn in
Java :deszelfs gedaante, bekleeding en inwendige structuur
[Dutch: its form, vegetation and internal structure]
and
Java :seine Gestalt, Pflanzendecke und innere Bauart
[German]

69 Gédé had last erupted in March 1853, and would erupt again in 1866
70 Now known as the 50m high Cibeureum waterfall, 2.8 km from Cibodas.
71 Fountain apple-moss, now revised as Philonotis fontana, a moss Motley might well have known from springs and
streams in Wales
72 Sphagnum, another moss familiar from Welsh peat bogs
73 The 'deep red Hepaticous plant' may be a moss, Sphagnum gedeanum Dozy & Molkenboer, 1854 , for which this is
the type locality (many references say endemic to W Java, but it is now a synonym for S.junghuhnianum which is
distributed from China and Japan through SE Asia to New Guinea)
74 Gunnera
75 Acacia volcanica does not appear to be a valid species name and is not a commonly quoted synonym either...
76 Saccharum, sugarcanes
77 Gyrophora, a lichen
78 Now revised as Codonopsis javanica
79 Caladium
80 Musa, bananas
81 Rhizantheous – parasites on roots, like the Rafflesia
82 Balanaphoraceae, parasitic on tree roots. An account of a visit to Gede in 2009 has a photo of B.elongata
83 Cissus, climbing vines
84 Cinchona, a genus of trees from S.America, the bark of which is the source of quinine. British interest had begun
well before 1852, when a formal request was made by the East India Company for plants and seeds for India. The
first 6 arrived in 1854, carried by Robert Fortune en-route to China, and were planted at Darjeeling, where they died.
It was not until 1860 that Clements Markham obtained over 500 plants in Peru, of which around 250 reached British
India, via Panama, Southampton and Suez: they died.. More were soon provided by Richard Spruce, and by the
Dutch in Java. Thomas Anderson, Superintendant of the Botanical Gardens at Calcutta gives a summary, including
 his own botanical observations on Pangrongo in 1861. He visited 'Tjibodas ... in which occurred all the accidents
and failures that attended the introduction of the plant..' and also the subsequent sites where cultivation was a
success. ([House of Commons] Account and Papers Vol XLV for 1863, No 118 – Correspondence relating to the
Introduction of the Chinchona Plant into India, and to Proceedings connected with its Cultivation, from March 1852
to March 1863.) In Peruvian Bark (p76-77) Markham says that the first plants shipped from Peru did not arrive until
December 1854, so the plants Motley referred to must have been raised from seed: only Teysmann, Binnendyk's
superior, gets a mention in the book for selecting Tjibodas (at 4400 ft) and Tjipannas (at 4700 ft, Motley's Chepanas)
as planting sites: they soon proved unsuitable. Wallace says that there were also young plantations at Kandang
Badak (Rhinoceros field) at about 7500 feet.
85 Presumably the Cibodas Botanical Gardens, although they were not established as such until 1862,