56 DR. HOOKER'S MISSION TO INDIA. 
exceedingly well; and so do two varieties of the European Fig. The 
mean temperature is considerably above that of this place, and, of course, 
the winter is much warmer, snow being hardly ever seen, and never 
lying on the ground. There the Plantain and Mango do not ripen, 
nor the Orange always, nor do the Gooseberry, Currant, or Raspberry 
mature their fruit well; and it is much too rainy for the Vine. 
Apricots can be produced with care and are good, but hardly Peaches. 
From this you see that the distribution of temperature is even of 
more consequence in India than its mean amount, and that a still more 
influential disturbing cause is the rainy season, whose effect is not only 
an excess of moisture, but an interception of the sun’s rays. In Thibet, 
north of the Himalaya snows, the Apple, Peach, Apricot, and other 
fruits, are perfect at elevations from 8 to 10 or 11,000 feet ; above which 
come-crops of Barley, Wheat, Peas, Fagopyrum, and in places too cold 
for these, Turneps and Radishes are the staple crops; above whose 
superior limit (15,000 feet), either barren stony mountains or grassy 
plains prevail. 
Owing to the comparatively level surface of the Thibetan plain, these 
crops are characteristic of what cultivation there is at such elevations. 
The same crops reach nearly 10-13,000 feet, south of the snowy 
range, amongst the rugged valleys of the Sub-Himalaya; but cultiva- 
tion is scattered, and only such sites are selected as, though of equal 
elevation, enjoy a greater temperature during the short season adapted 
to their growth. Thus, in Bhootan, the limits of wheat are 3,020 to 
9,640 feet ; between which levels it is the winter-crop, and is reaped 
in March. On the plains of India wheat is very abundant, and is also 
a winter-crop. The damp atmosphere, heat, and moisture are as direct 
obstacles to its being a summer-crop on the plains, as is the winter's 
cold to its being a winter one at above 9,500 feet on this side the 
Himalaya, nor anywhere in Thibet. 
Radishes, Peas, Beans, and Buckwheat, which are the upper level 
summer crops of Thibet, are, on this side the snow, the winter-crops 
of 5-8,000 feet (below Wheat, Barley, &c.), the heavy rains of the 
Cis-Himalayan region, and total absence of sun, combined with the 
cold of 9 and 10,000 feet, being very prejudicial; and they form a 
strange contrast to the dry atmosphere, powerful sun, and heat of its 
direct rays in Thibet,— which last makes up for the want of a higher 
mean temperature. 
To conclude this subject, —the same dry summer heat, combined with 
