Ericacee. | THE HIMALAYAN MOUNTAINS, 259 
The next most remarkable species is R. campanulatum, which forms a large, very 
handsome, straggling shrub, never found below 10,000 feet of elevation, and from that 
up to 12,000, on such mountains.as Choor, Urrukta, and Kedarkanta, as well as on 
Gossainthan. I have also received it from Peerpunjal, and from Lippa in Kunawur. 
The flowers vary so much in colour, that Capt. Webb proposed calling it R. mutabile : 
I have seen it in flower on Kedarkanta in May, with its branches drooping on the snow 
which had but recently melted away from about its roots. Its large pink flowers, 
smooth and shining leaves, with their rough and russet-coloured under surfaces, make 
this one of the most ornamental shrubs in these mountains. RR. anthopogon and lepidotum, 
both figured in Pl. 64, f. 1 and 2, are the species found at the highest elevations, 
extending beyond the limit of forest, or from 11,000 to 13,000 feet all along the moun- 
tains, from Nepal to Cashmere, and above 14,000 feet in Kunawur. These, as well as 
R. setosum, of which specimens are mixed with R. anthopogon, in the E. I. Herbarium, 
are allied to R. Lapponicum, Dauricum, and ferrugineum. 
The Ericacee differ in the properties of the tribes Erice@ and Rhodoree ; the former 
are chiefly astringent; some have succulent fruit which is edible, as Arbutus Unedo, 
Gaultheria Shallon, and procumbens ; the latter, combining some degree of stimulant with 
the astringent properties, forms one of the kinds of mountain tea. Arctostaphylos Uva 
Ursi, though astringent in taste, is also considered diuretic ; and Andromeda ovalifolia 
is said to be fatal to goats in the Himalayas. 
The Rhodoree abound more in stimulant and even deleterious properties. Thus, 
Rhododendron ponticum, maximum, ferrugincum, and chrysanthemum, are poisonous to 
cattle which feed on them, and in moderate doses are used in medicine, as for the cure 
of rheumatism, &c. Azalea procumbens, and Ledum palustre, are accounted diuretic, 
and L. latifolium, being more stimulant, is used as a tea, under the name of Labrador 
tea, but determines to the head. Kalmia latifolia is accounted poisonous, and honey 
collected by bees from its flower is of a deleterious nature, as is that of Azalea pontica, 
which was fatal to the soldiers in the retreat of the ten thousand. In the Himalayan 
species, Rhododendron arboreum is more remarkable for its uses as a timber tree than 
for deleterious properties, though these remain to be investigated in this as well as in 
other species. The flowers are eaten by the hill people, and formed into a jelly by 
European visitors. The leaves of R. campanulatum, being used as a snuff by the natives 
of India, are imported from Cashmere, under the names of hoolas-kasmeeree (Cashmere 
snuff), and burg-i-tibbut (Thibet-leaf), though easily procurable within the British 
territories. -It is remarkable, that De Candolle mentions the employment in the. 
United States, for a similar purpose, of the brown dust which adheres to the petioles 
of Kalmias and Rhododendrons. The leaves of R. lepidotum are highly fragrant (hence 
R. aromaticum, nob. Journ. As. Soc. 1. p. 467), and of a stimulant nature, and are 
imported from Caubul under the name Taleesfur ; to this in Persian works mafur and 
mafur booz are assigned as Greek names. In the valuable Dict. de Mat. Med. of M.M. 
Merat and De Lens, we are informed that Talisafar is the Arabic name in Avicenna of 
2u2 the 
