IN VABIOUS PAKTS OF THE GLOBE. 13 



prospect more gloomy than ever. The road, still carried up 

 steep ridges, was very slippery, owing to the rain upon the clayey 

 soil, and was only passable from the hold afforded by interlacing 

 roots of trees. At 8000 feet some enormous detached masses of 

 micaceous gneiss rise abruptly from the ridge ; these are covered 

 with mosses, ferns, CyrlandrecB and Begonia', and creeping 

 UrticecB. Such masses occur on all the sharp ridges, and at all 

 elevations ; they project awkwardly through the soil, and are 

 strangely confused and distorted in tlieir stratification, down even 

 to the ultimate lamination of the mica, felspar, and quartz. 

 They are never in situ, and are generally strangely shattered, 

 and evidently not the mere exposed top of any continuous rock 

 forming the nucleus of the mountain. A uniformly dipping 

 stratified rock of any extent would, if raised at the angle of the 

 slopes of these hills, present a precipitous face somewhere; but 

 the ranges of 4000 to 8000 feet ramify and inosculate in all 

 imaginable directions, without presenting a bold face any where 

 near Darjiling. The road cuttings from tiie plains to the Sana- 

 tarium, as well as the landslips, reveal iiighly inclined continuous 

 strata, all variously distorted and much dislocated, but these are 

 only at the foot of the hills. Above 4000 feet all appears a 

 strangely piled mass of gneiss rocks, with no uniformity of dip. 

 Amongst these the red clay lies deeper or shallower as the hollows 

 retain it or otherwise. 



These rocks are scaled by means of the roots of trees, and 

 from their summit (7000 feet) a good view of tiie surrounding 

 vegetation is obtained. The mass of the forest is formed of ( I ) 

 three species of oak, of which Q. annulala ? with immense lamel- 

 lated acorns, and leaves sometimes 16 inches long-, is tiie tallest 

 and tiie most abundant. (2) Chesnut. (3) Laurinece, of several 

 species, beautiful forest trees, straight-boled and umbrageous 

 above, chiefly Tetranthera and Cinnamomum. (4) MagnoliacecB ; 

 three species of Michelia. Other trees are Pyrus, Saurauja 

 (both an erect and climbing species), Olea, cherry, birch, alder, 

 maple {Acer), Hydrangea, and one species of fig ; holly ; 

 several Araliaceous trees. Arborescent Rhododendrons com- 

 mence here witii the R. arhoreum, wiiicli only occurs at one spot 

 near Darjiling (Mr. Hodgson's grounds on Jillapahar, 7500 feet). 

 Helwingia * and brambles are the prevalent shrubs. Ferns were 

 not yet fully expanded, and the upper limit of the tree ferns was 

 passed. This is the region of pendulous mosses, lichens, and 



* A new species of this most remarkable genus, -which I propose naming 

 after M. Decaisne, the able describer of the natural order, ■which hitherto in- 

 cluded but one species, a native of Japan. The place of this genus in the 

 vegetable kingdom has been considered doubtful ; I regard it as a reduced 

 form of Araliacea. 



