clothed with a forest vegetation from the level of the sea to the
summits of the loftiest mountains. This is the general rule.
Sumatra, New Guinea, Borneo, the Philippines and the Moluccas,
and the uncultivated parts of Java and Celebes, are all forest
countries, except a few small and unimportant tracts, due
perhaps, in some cases, to ancient cultivation or accidental
fires. To this, however, there is one important exception in the
island of Timor and all the smaller islands around it, in which
there is absolutely no forest such as exists in the other
islands, and this character extends in a lesser degree to Flores,
Sumbawa, Lombock, and Bali.

In Timor the most common trees are Eucalypti of several species,
also characteristic of Australia, with sandalwood, acacia, and
other sorts in less abundance. These are scattered over the
country more or less thickly, but, never so as to deserve the
name of a forest. Coarse and scanty grasses grow beneath them on
the more barren hills, and a luxuriant herbage in the moister
localities. In the islands between Timor and Java there is often
a more thickly wooded country abounding in thorny and prickly
trees. These seldom reach any great height, and during the force
of the dry season they almost completely lose their leaves,
allowing the ground beneath them to be parched up, and
contrasting strongly with the damp, gloomy, ever-verdant forests
of the other islands. This peculiar character, which extends in a
less degree to the southern peninsula of Celebes and the east end
of Java, is most probably owing to the proximity of Australia.
The south-east monsoon, which lasts for about two-thirds of the
year (from March to November), blowing over the northern parts of
that country, produces a degree of heat and dryness which