THE HIMALAYAN MOUNTAINS. 29 
From Dr. Buchanan’s observations, the thermometer has a range of 55°, the maximum 
and minimum, 86° and 31°, occurring in July and January. The winters are described 
as never being very severe ; but Nepal being within the influence of the tropical rains, 
there is at that season of the year considerable moisture of climate, and the mean tempe- 
rature of eight months in the year being above 60°, even in the open country about Cat- 
mandoo, and must be higher in some of the lower and more close vallies, we shall not be 
surprised at finding so many of the natural productions approximating to those both of 
the temperate and tropical zones. The general nature of the European-like Flora 
may be appreciated by a reference to that which has been enumerated as characterizing 
the central belt of the Himalayan slope. The greater prevalence of tropical forms is 
indicated in the existence of species of Semecarpus, Hirea, Hiptage, Triumfetta, Grewia, 
Utricularia, Dysophylla, Premna, Callicarpa, Anisochilus, and still more by the genera 
Podocarpus, Schepfia, Aschynanthus, Leucosceptrum, Gomphostemma, Geniosporum, 
Oxyspora, Sarcopyramis, Turpinia, and Apostasia being found here, while their remaining 
species are found in Sylhet, and still further to the southward and eastward. 
That considerable diversity of climate is met with in the several valleys which are 
comprehended under the general term Nepal might be inferred from their several eleva- 
tions, and is proved by some of them abounding in bamboos and ratans, where the 
pine-apple thrives and ripens its fruit, while in others oaks, walnuts, hornbeams and 
pines abound. We cease, therefore, to be surprised at finding a lofty palm, the Chame- 
rops Martiana of Dr. Wallich, in this valley, as well as a species of Balanophora, the 
rest of the genus being found both in the Indian and Malayan peninsula, as well as in 
the island of Java. Passiflora and Melastoma have each a species in Nepal, the 
former distributed chiefly over South America and the West-Indies, and the 
latter confined almost entirely within the Tropics; but species of the nearly 
allied Osbeckia found here, extend also as far as 31° of N. latitude along these 
mountains. The affinity to the Flora of China. may be observed in the several plants 
being found here previously mentioned as being common to that country and the 
Himalayas. To these may be added, Hovenia dulcis, Lonicera confusa, longifolia, and 
chinensis. Camellia Kissi, closely allied to both C. Sasanguha and oleifera, according 
to Dr. Wallich; is a plant of Nepal, where the tea shrub succeeds so well, that a 
young plant introduced from China had in 1818 attained a height of nine or ten feet. 
The Magnoliacee, of which several species are found in Nepal, form a link connecting 
its Flora with that of China and North America. 
Being within the influence of the tropical rains, we find rice, particularly when 
transplanted, forming the chief cultivation in Nepal, with maize and the other grains 
cultivated in India during that season, together with cotton, sugar-cane, ginger, a large 
kind of cardamom, the produce of a species of Amomum, and the Indian Madder or 
Rubia Munjista. Wheat and barley are cultivated in the winter months, which are 
however so mild as to ripen the orange in the open air; though European fruits do 
not succeed so well, from the shortness of the spring. The influence of the rains may 
also 
