CLIMATE OF HIMALAYA. 245 



the top light about 18 inches : this gives great facility for getting 

 well coloured fruit without shading the tree. I was led to 

 adopt this plan from seeing the fine productive state of the figs 

 trained under the roof of a house at Lord Ashburton's seat, The 

 Grange. 



Gthly. One word on figs in pots. I have found the best kinds 

 for this purpose to be the Violette, AVhite Marseilles, Black 

 Marseilles, and Lee's Perpetual. 



After they have filled the pots with roots in which it is 

 intended to fruit them, they should annually have a portion of 

 their roots pared away, and be repotted in good loam, lime- 

 rubbish, and dung. They should be plunged in a gentle bottom 

 of heat on a bed of leaves, be well supplied with water, and con- 

 stantly pinched to make them bushy and full of short spurs. 

 It is disadvantageous to place them vmder the shade of vines, 

 and it may be laid down as an axiom in fig-culture, that they 

 cannot have too much sun in the British Isles. 



The fig-tree in question ripened its first fruit on the 25th of 

 April, from which period it has gone on bearing till the present 

 time, August 26, and it has now many dozens to ripen, which 

 assisted by fire-heat, will continue till November. 



August 26th, 1851. 



XXII. — Cuntributions to a History of the Relation between 

 Climate and Vegetation in various Parts of the Globe. 



No. 12.. — Sketch of the Climate and Vegetatio7i of the Hima- 

 laya. By Thomas Thomson, M.D., Assistant Surgeon iu the 

 H.E.I.C. Service, Bengal Establishment. 



(Reprinted, by permission, from the Proceedings of the Philosophical Society 

 of Glasgow.) 



The great range of the Himalaya, when taken in conjunction 

 with the still more elevated mountains behind, which are in no- 

 wise distinguishable from it, constitutes the most stupendous mass 

 of mountains in the world, not only from containing the highest 

 peaks, but also, and still more remarkably, as presenting by far 

 the greatest area of elevated land. 



This gigantic mountain mass Jies to the north of the great 

 plain of India, from which it rises on the whole very abruptly. 

 It has a direction very nearly from east to west, its west extre- 

 mity is however little more northerly than the east, the latitude 

 rising from 26° at the east, to 33° at the west extremity. 



The mountain chain to which the name of Himalaya is most 



