IN VARIOUS PAETS OV THE GLOBE. 9 



berry. Vines, figs, pomegranates, plums, apricots, &c. will not 

 succeed even as trees. 



European vegetables again grow and thrive remarkably well 

 throughout the summer of Darjiling, and tlie produce is very fair, 

 sweet and good, but inferior in flavour to the English. 



Of tropical fruits cultivated below 4000 feet tlie orange and 

 banana alone are frequent, with lemons of various kinds. The 

 season for these is however very short : that of the plantain might 

 with care be prolonged, but the fruit, as I have said above, is 

 poor ; oranges abound in winter, and are excellent in flavour, but 

 neither so large nor free of white pulp as tliose of South America, 

 the AYest Indies, or AV. coast of Africa. Mangos are broiiglit 

 from the plains; they do not thrive in the valleys ; and tliougli 

 I have seen the pine-apple plant, I never met with its fruit. 



A singular and almost total absence of the light and heat of 

 the direct rays of the sun in the fruiting season, is the cause 

 of this dearth. Both the farmer and orcliard gardener know 

 full well in England the value of a bright sky as well as of a 

 warm autumnal atmosphere. Without this corn does not ripen, 

 and the fruit trees are blighted. The winter of the plains of 

 India being more analogous in its distribution of moisture and 

 heat to a European summer, such fruits as the peach, vine, and 

 even plum, the fig, strawberry, &c., may be brought to bear well 

 in March to April and May, if they are only carefully tended 

 through the previous hot and damp season, which is, in respect 

 to the functions of flowering and fruiting, their winter. 



Hence it appears that, though some English fruits will turn 

 the winter solstice of India (November to May) into summer, 

 and then flower and fruit, iieither these nor others will thrive in 

 the summer of 7000 feet on the outer Himalaya, though its tem- 

 perature so nearly approaches that of England, by reason of 

 tlie accumulated evils of its excessive rains and fogs. Further, 

 they are often exposed to a winter's cold no less rigorous than 

 the average of that of London, the snow lying for a week on 

 the ground, and the thermometer descending to 25°. It is 

 true that in no case is the extreme of cold so great liere as in 

 England, but it is suflficient to check vegetation, and to prevent 

 fruit trees flowering till they are fruiting in the plains. There 

 is in this a great difference Ijetween the climate of the central 

 and eastern and western Himalaya, at equal elevations. In the 

 eastern (Kumaon, &c.) the winters are colder and more comfort- 

 less than in Sikkim — the summers warmer and less humid. The 

 rainy season is shorter, and the sun shines so much more fre- 

 quently through the heavy showers that the apple and other 

 fruits are brought to a much better state. It is true that the 

 rain gauge may show a greater fall there, but this is no measure 



