120 
voured to arrive at by several methods, and the truth seems 
to be somewhere between 57? and 60». We have periodical 
rains, and the seasons arrange themselves into cold, hot, and 
rainy, as in the plains of India. Nothing can exceed the 
uniformity of temperature during the rains, the thermometer 
being steady for nearly four months, about 66? at sunrise, and 
75° at 24 p. M. At that season there is a complete change in 
the vegetable world, tropical plants taking the place of fami- 
liar-looking, almost Scotch weeds! During the cold season 
(the daily range being from 32? to about 56?) there are few 
flowers, and as the weather is generally dry, all kinds of 
vegetation are much burned up, Dandelion, Thyme, Rasp- 
berry, and the useful Paper Daphne, (ID. cannabina,) being 
the only flowers that survive. The thermometer is sometimes 
5° or 6° below freezing, but even at the coldest time of the 
year it is generally above that point. The extremes for 
1829 were 26°7 and 83°-3, for 1830, 27°-2 and 81^6. The 
hot weather, which in these hills is often refreshed by thunder 
storms of hail and rain, is the season for a botanist, the 
variety is so great: the grandeur of the plants may be superior 
in the rains; but April and May, spent by a botanist (I often 
wish that I were one) in traversing the 80 miles of straight 
line, from the plains of Rohilkund to the snow-line of the 
Himalaya, over many ranges with corresponding deep 
vallies, would appear to me to afford greater variety than the 
same distance in any part of the world. What Wallich has 
done, I know not, but till his time, this elysium for a botanist 
has scarcely been visited; at least I am not aware of more 
than a few straggling species described by Dr. Hamilton 
Buchanan, or Hardwicke. By the bye, I have often been 
much struck with the irregularity of the geography of plants, 
with reference to elevation. Exposure, and soil, but chiefly the 
former, seem to have considerable influence in the distribu- 
tion; for instance, in the great valley of Ramesur, (which I have 
often to cross to visit an out-post at Petoragurh,) on the side 
looking to the north, the Firs (Pinus longifolia), leaving, above, 
Oaks and Rhododendra, accompany Sal trees (Shorea robusta) 
and a dwarf Date, down to the very river ;—cross the bridge, 
