ies to the Java gardens. Here at Buitenzorg there is a
school of forestry and another of veterinary science, each of these with
practical demonstrations. Trees and plants in the gardens are grouped in
scientific classes, the palms by themselves, the pines by themselves.
Here the _Victoria regia_, the royal pond-lily, flourishes in its proper
habitat. The avenues of kanari trees, with their lofty overarching
vaulting, are grander than any nave of French cathedral. It will be seen
at once that the Botanical and Experimental Gardens of Java are of
immense service to agriculture and to science throughout the world. We
had the great privilege of being personally conducted through them by
Dr. K. J. Lovink, Director of the Dutch Department of Agriculture,
Industry, and Commerce.

I wish I could say as much for the religious prospects of Java as I can
say for its economical and political prospects. There is even greater
need of change in this regard, for the island has been a very stronghold
of Buddhism, as it is now of Mohammedanism. When driven out from India,
the Buddhist missionaries came to Java and here found a welcome.
Javanese kings erected temples so enormous and so rich in sculpture
that, defaced and decayed as they now are, they have no superiors on
earth. It was, indeed, the fame of Boro Budor, that most attracted us
to Java, and we made a journey of thirteen hours to inspect this
renowned ruin.

Imagine a structure upon an eminence from which it is visible for miles,
yet walled in on one side by a lofty range of mountains, and on the
other side commanding a magnificent view of cultivated plains. Imagine a
temple of brick, like the great pyramid of Egypt, more than five hundred
feet square, with five broad terraces, the uppermost of which encloses
an immense sitting statue of Buddha. The topmost crown of this solid
structure rises more than two hundred feet above the ground.

The wonder of Boro Budor is, however, not the vastness of the structure,
containing though it does an amount of material five times as great as
that of any English cathedral, so much as it is the enormous amount of
artistic work that has been expended upon it. Each of these five
terraces has sculptured upon its side walls some representation in
bas-relief of the legendary incidents of Buddha's existence, not only in
the present state, but in his previous states of being. You walk, as it
were, through a picture-gallery of the life of Buddha. T