FROM PATNA TO DARJEELING. 275 
the heart of India,) it is an important place. For this reason there are 
always an European and several detachments of the Company's Ser- 
vice stationed there. 
At Patna, famous for its manufactures of cotton cloths, especially 
table-linen, towelling, &c., I was chiefly engaged with Dr. Irvine, in 
botanizing, or naming my plants. I received from this gentleman 
much excellent information on various subjects. In the neighbourhood 
there is little to be seen; and the highly cultivated flat country is un- 
favourable to native vegetation. I picked up a few wild plants, and 
den. T 
cholera broke out during my stay, and has raged fearfully since. 
This pestilence, that walketh unchecked at noon-day, was prevalent at 
every succeeding halting-place which I visited, its ravages being, how- 
ever, confined to the natives. The mudar plant ( Calotropis) is abundant 
here; and I assure you its properties and nomenclature are far from 
settled points. On the banks of the Ganges, the larger, white-flowered, 
sub-arboreous species prevails; in the interior, and along my whole 
previous route, the smaller purple-flowered variety only is seen. The 
species look very different, but when gathered there is extreme diffi- 
culty in recognizing them. . Davis, of Rotas, is in the habit of 
using the medicine copiously, and can vouch for the cure of eighty 
cases, chiefly of leprosy, by the exhibition of the white mudar, gathered 
on the Ganges; whilst the purple of Rotas and the neighbourhood is 
quite inert. Dr. Irvine, again, uses the purple only, and finds the white 
inert, Among the European and native Doctors, who knowthe two plants, 
I find that all give the preference to the white, except Dr. Irvine, whose 
experience over various parts of India is entitled to great weight. 
March 29. Dropped down the river with the current, experiencing a 
succession of E. and N. E. winds from Patna during the whole re- 
mainder of the voyage. Such a prevalence in this part is very piden 
in the month of March, and it rendered the passage in my slug 
boat sufficiently tedious. In other respects I had but little bad 
weather to complain of: only one shower of rain occurred and but few 
storms of thunder and lightning. The stream is very strong, and its 
action on the sand-banks conspicuous. All night I hear the falling 
cliffs precipitated with a dull heavy splash into the water,—a pretty 
spectacle in the day-time, when the whirling current is seen to carry a 
cloud of white dust, like smoke, along its hurrying course. 
2N 
