32 SCIENTIFIC MISSION 
species of shrubs, &e. &c. &c. The top of the highest hill is 8,300 
feet, Quercus semicarpifolia does not grow here, but is plentiful at 
Mahagoo and Fagoo—respectively six and ten miles off—I suppose 
about 1000 feet higher. Q. semicarpifolia is characteristic of a 
higher elevation, as is also Abies Pindron—a tree which, as far as 
I can recollect, seems not different from 4. Webbiana, which I 
formerly collected in Gurhwal. I shall, however, by-and-bye, have 
an opportunity of comparing them. I went out to Fagoo about 
the 15th of last month, and remained there two days, intending 
to go three marches into the interior, but the threatening state 
of the weather deterred me. The road is the same by which 
I shall travel ten days hence, which made me less anxious to pro- 
ceed. I have, as you know, been on Gurhwal as high as an 10,000 
feet; and as none of the mountains near this attain such eleva- 
tion I have met with no novelty on them. In fact the vegetation ` 
here and at Nynee Tal, may, I think, be said to be identical. 
Minute comparison will, no doubt, point out many variations— 
for instance, Coriaria Nepalensis, Cornus oblonga, Myrica escu- 
lenta, Acer oblongum, Rhus (entire-leaved,) Cupressus torulosa, 
Carpinus, Symplocos, all common at Nynee Tal, I have not seen 
here, but in all probability I shall meet with them in the neigh- 
bourhood; while Pinus excelsa, Abies Smithiana, and the Deodar, 
do not occur at Nynee Tal, and are all, however, found in 
Kamaon. I shall pay great attention to geographical distribution 
as I go along, and hope to accumulate a great many useful data. 
T have been reading Jacquemont, and, finding much to interest 
me, have extracted all the botanical observations of the Himalayan 
part to take with me: he is sometimes fanciful, and is amusingly 
bitter against English travellers, and Anglo-Indians in general ; 
but I think him a very careful observer: his notes were of 
course intended to be filled up at a future time by study of 
his collections, had not his death interfered, for he overlooks 
many common plants which he must have often seen. He says, 
for instance, that he never saw a Vitis in India, till he reached the 
= Dhoom. His plates, I think, often contain old plants under new — 
.. mames, for which I presume his editor, and not himself, is to blame; - 
