4 RELATION BETWEEN CLIMATE AND VEGETATION 



valleys — the western limits of both these interesting plants. Of 

 Pandanus there is a graceful species at elevations of 1000 to 

 4000 feet ('• Borr," Lepclia). 



4. Tlie fourth striking feature is a wile] plantain, which ascends 

 to above 6000 feet (" Lukhlo," Lepcha). This is replaced by 

 another and rather larger species at lower elevations ; both 

 ripen austere and small fruits, which are full of seed and quite 

 uneatable ; good specific characters may be drawn both from the 

 male flowers, and from the size> form, and colour of the seeds. 

 The commonly cultivated plantain of Sikkim is, I am always 

 assured, an introduced stock (nor have the wild species ever been 

 cultivated) : it is very large, but poor in flavour, and does not 

 bear seeds. 



The zones of these conspicuous plants are very clearly de- 

 fined in descending anywhere from Darjiling, and especially if 

 the traveller, standing on one of the innumerable spurs which 

 project from the ridge, cast his eyes up the gorges of green on 

 either hand. Firing the forest is easy in the drier months of the 

 year, and a good deal of cultivation is met with on the spurs, at 

 and below 5000 feet, the level generally inhabited by the Lepchas, 

 Limbos, and Sikkim* Bhoteas. The mountain slopes are so 

 steep, that these spurs, or little shelves, are the only sites for 

 habitations between the very rare flats on the river banks, and 

 the mountain ridges, above 6000 feet, beyond which cultivation 

 is rarely, if ever, carried by the Lepchas. The crops are the 

 usual ones of the plains, and the agriculture similar, with one 

 important exception, that the rice is seldom irrigated. This 

 appears the more remarkable, as on crossing the Singalelah 

 range into Nepal, in localities as steep as those covered with 

 rice crops in Sikkim, irrigation is almost universally resorted 

 to. The varieties of grain are difterent, but as many as eight 

 or ten kinds are grown without irrigation by the Lepchas, and 

 the produce is described as veiy good (80 fold). Much of this 

 success is due to the great dampness of the climate ; were it not 

 for this, the culture of the grain would probably be abandoned 

 by the Lepchas, who never remain for more than three seasons 

 on one spot. 



At the bottom of the valley is a small village of Lepchas, 

 Limbos, and Murniis, aggregated in groups, on one spur, and 

 surrounded with small fields of the usual summer and winter 



* I apply the term Sikkim Bhoteas to the more recent emigrants from 

 Tibet, who have settled in Sikkim, and are an industrious, well-conducted 

 people. The Bhoteas, again, of Bhotan, to the eastward, rarely reside ex- 

 cept at Darjiling, and deservedly bear the worst reputation of any of the 

 numerous people who flock to this station. They should not be confounded 

 with any other Bhotean tribes of Tibet, Sikkim, or Nepal. 



