and on the Sanscrita Names of that Country. 177 



mined the country west from Chola, which the natives call Chera 

 or Cheda, but which Europeans, from a town in it, call Coimbe- 

 tore (Coiamatura). Chera as well as Chola is bounded on the 

 south by the country which the natives call Pandiya, extending 

 from near the Kaveri to the Southern Ocean. The northern 

 parts of this, towards Chera, I had an opportunity of examining. 

 The vegetation of all these countries is nearly similar. The 

 elevation of Mysore above the others, although probably about 

 3000 feet of perpendicular height, produces no great change. 

 The temperature is no doubt somewhat lower, and more agree- 

 able to European feelings ; but the aspect of the upper country 

 is not materially different from that of the lower. Both labour 

 under a scarcity of rain, so that artificial irrigation from reser- 

 voirs or canals is necessary for the production of rice, which, in 

 the low country especially, is the staple article of food, although 

 both there and in the higher country the rainy season produces 

 crops of miserable small grains, such as Eleusine Corocanus, Pa- 

 nicum Italicum, and Panicum miliaceum, that are used by the 

 natives as a succedaneum for rice. These crops have little of 

 an European appearance ; nor do the orchards and gardens 

 heighten the resemblance. The fruit trees round the villages 

 consist chiefly of the Mangifera, Citrus, Bassia, Artocarpus, Eu- 

 genia, Elate, and Borassus, while the kitchen gardens require to 

 be watered by machinery from wells. The general appearance 

 of the country is sterile, the rock projecting in a great many 

 places, while, during the greater part of the year, the grass is en- 

 tirely parched up from want of moisture ; and even in the rainy 

 season the grass is not longer than is usual in Europe. In the 

 woods, the trees are still more stinted than those of Europe, 

 and consist in a large proportion of wild prickly dates (Elate syl- 

 vestris) and Bambusae, with trees of the Leguminosae, especially 

 such as have prickles, and of the Rhamni. Even the thickets 

 consist chiefly of bushes of the Leguminosaa, and of the Rhamni 

 VOL. x. P. i. z 



