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1525 metres altitude combines temperature and tropical features 

 of physiognomy, and possesses a flora in which are mingled 

 tropical and temperate genera and families. The foliage of the 

 forest trees is rather xerophilous, but beneath its shade grow 

 broad-leaved shrubs and herbaceous plants, tree-ferns, filmy ferns 

 and multitudes of epiphytic ferns, mosses and liverworts, — in 

 short a constellation of pronouncedly hygrophilous plants. The 

 climate of the region is characterised by constancy of temper- 

 ature, a heavy rainfall, well distributed through the year but 

 heaviest in May and in the autumn months, by a high percentage 

 of cloudiness and fog, and by high humidity. In the absence of 

 climatic data for the windward slopes of the Blue Mountains the 

 following figures for Cinchona, situated on the leeward side, may 

 be taken as some criterion of the conditions in the former region, 

 although the rainfall and humidity are too low and the temper- 

 ature slightly too high, as I have learned by comparison of the 

 records for Cinchona with thermograph and hydrograph records 

 which I have obtained in the rain forest over the same shorter 

 periods of time. 



PRINCIPAL ELEMENTS OF THE CLIMATE OF CINCHONA. 



Number of rainy 

 Temperature. Rainfall. days. Humidity. 



The climatic conditions are quite favourable for growth and 

 reproduction throughout the year, as indicated by the above data. 

 During the seven months of my residence at Cinchona I made 

 continuous observations of the growth, leafing-out, leaf-fall and 

 flowering of the native trees. There were found to be wide 

 differences between the periodicity of these phenomena in 

 different species. In very many of them growth, leafing-out and 

 leaf-fall are going on continuously. In others these phenomena 

 are restricted to a period of two or three months, usually Feb- 

 ruary, March and April. A few trees of north temperate relation- 

 ship are completely deciduous. The time of flowering is 

 variously related to the time of the growth and leaf formation, 

 being the spring in many trees, the autumn in an almost equal 

 number. 



