60 BOTANICAL INFORMATION. 
tree of Cheenur is the Quercus semicarpifolia, which fringes the crest 
and covers the whole south-west face. Budhan Dhoora and Sat- 
choolium, points of nearly the same altitude and at no great distance, 
on each side of Cheenur, have not a trace of it; and on the former I 
could only find a few specimens of Colguhounia vestita, a very common 
shrub at Nynee Tal and towards Budreenath. The Limonia Laureola, 
too, occurs only in this locality on the Gagur range; and though the 
Cypress is said to exist in Dhyanee Rao, it appears to be in small 
quantity, limited to a grove or two: the face of Cheenur, towards 
the lake, on the contrary, bristles with groves and clumps of this dark 
and stately tree, which recurs, though in diminished numbers, on the 
Ghiwalee cliffs, as low down as 5,100, feet. The Sher ka Danda 
(8,023 feet) alone in this neighbourhood affords the Quercus lanuginosa. 
The list of the more common plants of this region is an exceedingly 
interesting and extensive one, chiefly European forms. Among the 
trees are enumerated Cupressus torulosa, Pinus longifolia, — 
floribunda, Betula cylindrostachya, (or nitida), Alnus Nepalensis o 
obtusifolia, Quercus incana, Q. lanata, Q. semicarpifolia, Q. sad 
Q. annulata, Acer oblongum, A. levigatum and cultratum, Populus 
ciliata, Symplocos paniculata, Rhododendron arboreum, &e. Of this 
latter Major Madden observes that it attains a height of forty feet 
with a trunk in one case thirteen, in another sixteen, feet in girth. 
One on Singabee Devee measures fourteen feet and a half round at five 
feet from the ground. Cattle are said to be occasionally killed by 
eating the flowers and young leaves 
From Nynee Tal to Kaledhoongee, twelve miles, with 5,700 feet 
descent. Of course here the vegetation became more tropical and less 
interesting ; Ficus Indica, the sacred Fig of India, and the Ficus 
religiosa, or Peepul, are both found here and both held sacred. The 
root-stems of the former make excellent poles for the Dandees, on 
account of their toughness and elasticity; but they are not cut till the 
“ indwelling, arborescent god has been appeased by the sacrifice of a 
goat ;—that luckless beast which, on every occasion, bears the brunt of 
the sins, real or imaginary, of all Kumaoon.” 
Peepul, Major Madden tells us, is derived from pa, to preserve ; 
and the practice of all India bears out the etymology; not even a 
sacrifice atones for the crime of wounding and maiming it, and fortu- 
nately the wood is useless; and he suggests that the Arbor Populi of 
