EAST NEPAL AND THE SIKKIM HIMALAYA MOUNTAINS. 91 



below 8500 feet, belong here ; and I may conclude this long dis- 

 cussion with the remark, that tlioiigh the Himalaya is so rich in 

 species, it may prove that in this respect it only partakes of 

 the tiora of tlie Malay islands. Thirteen kinds found below 

 8500 feet, on a mountain unexplored beyond that height, and in 

 a country but once ascended so high, argues a profusion of species 

 in the mountainous regions of that island of which we can form 

 no adequate idea. 



I. Species of the First or Lower Zone, answering to the Tem- 

 perate latitudes ; 6000 to 10,000 feet. 



1. R. argenteiim. — Distribution and range : East Ne- 

 pal and Sikkim; 8000 to 10,000 feet; confined to 

 the dampest regions. 



It forms a tree 30 feet high ; trunks solitary, or two or three 

 together, spreading, branched above, the bark pale, and the 

 branches leafy at the apex. Leaves very beautiful in the leaf- 

 buds, at first enveloped in erect and silky scales, so closely im- 

 bricated and so large as to resemble the cones of some species of 

 pine ; the outer or loM'er scales broad and coriaceous, glabrous, 

 of a reddish-brown colour, the innermost ones oblong-spathulate, 

 pubescent. When fully developed the leaves are among the 

 largest of the genus, 6 inches to a foot long, 3 to 5 inches 

 broad, full green above, beneath silvery white. Bracteas deci- 

 duous, densely silky. Flowers 2 to 3 inches long, 2 to 2^ inches 

 in diameter, inodorous, always white. — In the silvery underside 

 of the foliage, but in nothing else, this resembles R. arboreum^ 

 while the blossoms are often as large as those of R. Dalhousice. 

 On Sinchul, the higher parts of the mountain, from 8000 to 

 9,000 feet of elevation, are more or less clothed with it ; on 

 Tonglo, as it approaches 10,000 feet, it is suddenly replaced by 

 R, Falconeri. It seemed to be shy of flowering in the season of 

 1848, for it was with difficulty I could then procure sufficient 

 specimens to complete my drawing; in 1849 it flowered pro- 

 fusely, and, with the white magnolias, formed at a considerable 

 distance a conspicuous object amid the lurid green vegetation 

 of the mountains. 



2, R, barbatum, — Distribution and range : Kemaon, 

 Nepal, Sikkim, and Bhotan ; 8000 to 1 1 ,000 feet ; 

 confined to tlie dampest wooded regions, 



A tree 30 to 40 feet high, branched from the base. Leaves, 

 in the very young state, sparingly hairy and ciliated ; when 

 fully developed, 5 to 7 inches long, and from 1^ to 3 inches 

 wide, elliptical-lanceolate, acute, rather broader above the middle, 



