and on the Sanscrita Names of that Country. 1 73 



tribe of Tripura still maintains a kind of independence. Here" 

 I had a full opportunity of examining the splendid vegetation of 

 the well watered districts of Farther India (extra Gangem) which 

 bounds the extensive Gangetic plain on the east, and extends 

 south from what we call China to the Ocean. It must be obser- 

 ved, however, that this Farther India, as it has been called, is the 

 proper China of the Hindus, from whom we derived the word, 

 while, what we name the Chinese Empire, the Hindus call Maha 

 China, or the Great China. 



The largest portion of this Farther India, or Southern China, 

 is mountainous and well watered ; but its mountains nowhere 

 rise to an alpine elevation, and, owing to a copious supply of 

 moisture, and a deep soil, are, in general, covered to the summit 

 with lofty forests. I have already mentioned, that a great part 

 of the proper kingdoms of Pegu and Ava differs a good deal from 

 the general appearance of the neighbouring countries, the former 

 resembling more the southern plains of Bengal, and the latter 

 the southern peninsula of India ; but by far the greater portion of 

 this Farther India, in its vegetable productions, resembles Chati- 

 gang ; and what RUMPHIUS called India aquosa, or the immense 

 Eastern Archipelago, including the Andaman and Nicobar 

 islands, may be considered as belonging to the same vegetable 

 arrangement. Of this the most prominent feature is a tenden- 

 cy in trees of considerable size to twine round others, forming 

 thus forests almost totally impervious. These twining trees, the 

 Funes sylvestris of RUMPHIUS, are often thicker than the human 

 body, and extend to great distances, overwhelming the most lof- 

 ty and vigorous woods ; and so strong is the tendency to this 

 kind of vegetation, that some even of the Palmae (Calamus, L.) a 

 tribe in general remarkable for erect stiffness, are here climbers, 

 and, after overtoping the highest trees, again drop branches to 

 the earth, which take root, and climb up the trees that are adja- 

 cent ; and thus, with other thicker, though less powerfully armed 



