BOTANY OF MOULMEIN. 103 



Extracts from Two Letters from the Eev. Chaules Parish, of Afoul- 

 mein, to Dr. T, Thomson, Director of the East Tndia Company's 



Botanic Garden, Calcutta. 



Moulmein, July 30, 1855. 



Without much pretension to a knowledge of botany, I am passion- 

 ately fond of this study, and therefore gladly answer your kind com- 

 munication and oflFer of correspondence. You ask about the mountain 

 called Moolee-it, and its productions and elevation, etc. I did not 

 myself ascend it ; but, in January last, the Deputy Commissioner of 

 this district invited me to join him in a tour in the neighbourhood ; 



r 



as he is an enthusiastic ornithologist, I thought that our pursuits were 

 of a kindred nature, and gladly availed myself of the proposal. 



We went up to the head of one of the four rivers, which unite their 

 waters at Moulinein, the Gyeen, bearing away to the north-east, towards 

 a fine range of mountains, clearly visible on a fair day from this place. 

 After leaving our boats, it took us however three days to reach the foot 

 of them ! By this time I was reluctantly obliged to retrace my way 

 alone, as my duties would not allow of a longer absence. We guessed 

 the heiglit of the ran^e to be 6000 feet. Captain Tickell, the Deputy 



Commissioner, was not desirous of climbing those mountains alone, so 

 he came back, and then pursued an easterly course up another river, 

 the Honarees, and it was in that direction, due east of Moulmein, that 

 he came to the mountain called Moolee-it, which he ascended, and, by 

 the boiling-water test, ascertained its elevation to be 7000 feet. He 

 tells me that he sent his calculations to Captain Thuiller, at Calcutta, 



for correction ; so that you can easily satisfy yourself on this point. 

 Captain Tickell is not a botanist, but he kindly complied with my re- 

 quest that he would bring me Ferns, or other remarkable plants, and I 

 send you some small Fferus which he gathered at random, on a height 

 of between 5000 and 6000 feet; also some interesting Mosses, espe- 

 cially beautiful specimens of SchloOie'mia sulcata, in fructification. Was 

 it ever found before in that state ? The mountain, so far as I can 

 gather from Captain Tickell's description, is clothed with dense jungle 

 to within five hundred feet of the top, where there is a smaU terrace, 

 just below the loftiest rocky peak, of grass-land, open, and resembling 

 an English heath or moor, with the additional siPMlitude of partridges 

 running about in great numbers among the abundant Fern, which 



