312 AN-NUAL REPORT SMITHSOjSTIAN INSTITUTION, 19 32 



In Kashmir a number of introduced silvan species flourish. Prom- 

 inent features of the landscape are long and healthy avenues of 

 Lombardy poplars planted, as windbreaks, and sources of local 

 timber, through the influence of British officials. These trees are 

 numbered and carefully protected from local thieves whose easy 

 morals do not prohibit the destruction of a tree " when nobody is 

 looking." 



The cherry and the plane tree, tea, and cinchona are other suc- 

 cessful inmiigrants, giving certain parts of the country a distinctly 

 European cast. In the high mountains, however, the Kashmir flora 

 is that of Persia, Afghanistan, and Siberia. Finally, although there 

 is a native coffee plant growing in the hotter parts of the Himalayas, 

 climatic influences do not favor the growth of commercial species. 



Many of the Himalayan silva are noted for their beautiful blooms, 

 for their peculiar fruit, their flaming leafage or the eccentric forms 

 of trunk or branches. One notices not only these, but also rare 

 rhododendrons, magnolias, daphnes, laurels, nutmegs, cherries, roses, 

 viburnum, panda mus, bombax tree ferns, bamboos, etc., some of them 

 adorned with orchids and other epiphytic plants. Among the last- 

 named is the calamus, climbing over even the tallest trees. 



As Holdich points out, rhododendrons begin at 6,000 feet, become 

 abundant at 10,000 to 14,000 feet, and form in some instances masses 

 of shrubs 2,000 feet above the forest line. Orchids are very numer- 

 ous, especially between 6,000 and 8,000 feet. 



As Sir Thomas Holdich also indicates, the distribution of animal 

 life of the Himalayan region results from about the same factors 

 that determine the character of its botanic forms. The connection of 

 north India with surrounding countries and continents is doubtless 

 responsible for the large number of modern European and far 

 eastern species and for many corresponding prehistoric forms. 



A well-known ajiimal characteristic of the Thibetan highlands is 

 the yak {Bos gtmnnieiis)^ that dark brown, long-haired ox, weighing 

 often 1,000 pounds, that when domesticated proves as valuable to 

 the people of central Asia as our own buffalo was to the North Ameri- 

 can Indian. It must be remembered that a still more useful animal 

 is a cross between the yak and the horned cattle of Hindustan. The 

 Himalayan region furnishes also numerous wild sheep, the musk 

 deer, wild asses, ermine, antelopes, and many other animals. 



Unless one has visited and picnicked in them it is difficult to 

 realize the picturesque beauty of the gardens planted by the Moslem 

 emperors of India and their wives. A love of landscape decoration 

 was an outstanding virtue of the Persian conquerors of north India, 

 who were quick to see and eager to take advantage of the many 

 beautiful settings for landscaping on a grand scale, including 



