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52 DR. HOOKER’S MISSION TO INDIA. 
at their apices: its general appearance is a good deal that of the 
mountain-ash ; and the leaves, now copiously falling, and red in decay, 
are similarly pinnated ; they actually reddened the ground. The Gum 
was flowing abundantly from the trunk, very fragrant, clean, and 
transparent. Many of the trees were cut down, and had pushed leafy 
ramuli in great abundance from their stumps. The ground was dry, 
sterile, and rocky, with little other vegetation: Orchidee or Loranthi 
grew on the trees, and but little grass under foot. Kunkar, the eurious 
formation I told you of before, re-appears in the alluvium. Another 
Phenix occurred here, similar to, but, I think, distinct from, the 
Paras-Nath species, probably P. acaulis (Griff.) : it is wholly stemless, 
and I saw male flowers only. 
Suddenly descending to the village of Burshoot, we lost sight of the 
Boswellia, and came upon a magnificent tope of Mango, Banyan, and 
Peepul, so far superior to anything hitherto met with, that we were 
glad to have hit upon such a pleasant halting-place for breakfast. 
There are a few lofty Borassi here too, great rarities in this soil and 
elevation: one, about eighty feet high, towered above some = 
hovels, displaying the curious proportions of this tribe of Palms: 
a short cone, tapering to one-third the height of the stem, the va 
then swells to two-thirds and again tapers to the crown. 
Beyond this, to Burree, the country ascends, and is tolerably wooded, 
but otherwise sterile and unproductive. Burree (1619 feet) is another 
dawk bungalow, a barren place, which we left at day-light on the morning 
of Feb. 9th. 
So little was there to observe, that I again amused myself with 
watching foot-steps, the precision of which in the sandy soil was curious. 
down from the elephant, I was amused to see them all in 
relief, instead of depressed, the slanting rays of the Eastern sun in 
front producing this kind of mirage: the effect was highly curious. 
We crossed another shoulder of a hill on this undulating road, at an 
elevation of 1524 feet, and descended to the broad stony bed of the 
Burrackur river, an affluent of the Dummoodah, and therefore of the 
Hooghly. Except some cotton cultivation, there was little to be seen; 
and before us rose no more of those wooded hills that had been 
our companions for the last 120 miles, and whose absence is a sign of 
the nearly approaching termination of the great hilly platean which we 
had traversed for that distance, 
