116 DR. HOOKER'S MISSION TO INDIA. 
covered still with a magnificent forest of Oaks and the large-flowered 
Magnolia, and here and there fine trees of Yew. Kadsura and Staun- 
tonia were very abundant, both climbing lofty trees; and the ground 
was all but covered with the dwarf Bamboo, an elegant species, 6—8 feet 
high, growing thick and close. An epiphytal Orchideous plant, of 
extreme beauty, Cælogyne Wallichii? (lowers pale rose, with a yellow 
labellum) was abundant on the trees, and ascends to nearly 10,000 
feet. A curious shrubby Smilax? with distichous leaves like the Boz, 
is very plentiful, as are two scandent species of the usual form. Con- 
vallarie of two species and the Disporum are also common, with small 
trees of Rhododendron arboreum (var. puniceum) and barbatum, Olea, 
Limonia, Ilex, several species of Symplocos, and as many of Celastrus. 
The fragrance of some plants was very grateful, and especially that of 
Kadsura, which in this respect, as well as aromatic taste, glaucous 
foliage, aspect and habitat, inflorescence and higher points, I would 
restore to the neighbourhood of Magnoliacez, from whence Lindley has 
removed it, on, I think, insufficient, though far from trivial grounds. 
Since leaving Simsibong, I have not met with a single Leguminous plant, 
nor with a Grass (except Bamboo) ; of the latter only one or two species 
occur at the top of Tonglo ; of the former certainly none, except, pos- 
sibly, the Parochetus, which I did not see. I think myself safe in 
asserting that the latter is the only representative of its Order above 
5 or 6,000 feet and below 10,000 on the Sikkim-Himalaya. 
A loathsome tick infests the bushes at these elevations, both here 
and at Darjeeling, and a more odious insect it has never been my mis- 
" fortune to encounter; it is often as large as the little finger-nail, and 
manages to bury its proboscis and head, without causing more than very 
trifling pain. It can only be extracted by pure force, and that is suf- 
ficiently painful, its horny lancet being armed on both sides with 
reversed barbs. I have devised all manner of cunning tortures, che- 
mical and mechanical, some of which, I am sure, must give the insect 
exquisite pain; but none will induce it to withdraw its hold ;—the 
more you pull, “tke more it wow come." I can hardly summon 
courage to extract one from myself; not because of the suffering, but 
from an indescribable loathing of the creature, such as is called a 
* seunnery" in Scotland, as some people have for snakes (in which I 
do not participate). Indeed, I am childish enough to make my ser- 
vant keep a constant serutiny on the exposed paris of my person, when 
