CLIMATE. 



From the above, it will be observed that the coolest 

 months' are December and January, that the temperature 

 gradually rises until May, -when it attains its mean maxi- 

 mum. The more overcast skies of June produce a lower 

 mean temperature in that month, but the absolute maximum 

 may occur in either May or June. From Jane the tempera- 

 ture decreases again till December or January, except that 

 the decrease in cloud during September causes a temporary 

 increase in temperature during that month. The damp 

 tropical heat of the period from June to September produces 

 a wealth of terrestrial orchids, Scitaminese, Aroids and 

 other tropical undergrowth, which dies back again to peren- 

 nial rootstocks during the cool dry winter. 



In the following table the stations are arranged in the 

 order of the heaviest rainfall. 



The figures are obtained from Volume XVII of the 

 Meteorological Memoirs (iy04), and are based on all avail- 

 able data to the end of 1903. They are not exactly compar- 

 able, inasmuch as some stations have a very much longer 

 record than others. A comparison, however, of the figures 

 with those recorded in the Meteorological Memoirs of 1886— 

 1888 (Volume III, Part III) for the older stations, shows 

 that there is no appreciable increase or diminution of the 

 rainfall during the last twenty years. 



x In south Monghyr. 

 22 



