42 DR. HOOKER'S MISSION TO INDIA. 
and an erect smaller species. The hill-top was rocky with blocks 
of granite, covered with scattered trees, and a few foliaceous Lichens, 
as Parmelia perlata, which latter I had nowhere seen on the plain 
below. A yellow crustaceous Lichen always affected the shaded rocks ; 
it is a degenerate state of one of the parietina section of Parmelia, a 
plant whose different states find, I am convinced, a local habitation and 
a name in several genera. 
Other plants gathered here, and very typical of the flora of this 
dry region, are Linum trigynum, Feronia Elephantum, Aigle Marinelos, 
Helicteres Asoca, Abrus precatorius, Flemingia, various Desmodia, Rhyn- 
chosie, Glycine, and Grislea tomentosa, very abundant, Conocarpus 
latifolius, Loranthus longiflorus, and another species; Exacum tetra- 
gonum, Erythrea centaurioides, Canscora pusilla, Phyllanthus Emblica, 
various Convolvuli, Argyreia and Ipomea and Evolvulus, Cuscata, and 
several herbaceous Composite, as Spheranthus, Emilia, Conyza, Wollas- 
tonia, Vicoa Indica, Blainvillea, &c. 
Feb. 3rd.—At 3 a.m., the temperature was 55°, very cold to the 
feelings ; and though the sky was clear, the night calm, and the tempe- 
rature of the grass only 46°, no dew had collected, owing doubtless to 
the haze which, though of extreme tenuity, was perceptible on the 
horizon. 
At 6 a.m., started (for the ascent of Paras-Nath) to a small village 
at the north base of the mountain, or opposite side from that on which 
the road runs. Following the latter for a few miles, I observed some 
cotton cultivated on the sides of a hill, so steep that it was difficult to 
imagine how the soil could be retained: it was a warm south exposure, 
and the only cotton I had seen anywhere on these plains. Leaving 
the road, we took a path through beautifully wooded plains, with scat- 
tered trees of the Mahoua (Bassia latifolia), much resembling good 
Oaks.* Buchanania latifolia is here an abundant and handsome little 
tree, in full flower. Kydia calycina forms a large bush. Bombax hep- 
taphylla started boldly out from the other forest-trees. A Lagerstrarmia 
is not uncommon. Fici, Gmelina arborea, purviflora and Asiatica ; 
Diospyros, two species; Bauhinias, Nauclea cordifolia and parvifolia ; 
Anacardium, Semecarpus, Terminalias, and clumps of Bamboo. The 
* The natives distil a kind of arrack from the a. which are also 
riya seeds, ray yield a conerete oil, by expression, used for lamps, and didasi 
s 
