298 An Account of Giirhwal^ [Sess. 



that may be clinging to their ankles, or their feet above their 

 sandals. I need scarcely add that, in winter, there are no 

 biting flies, and no leeches. This would, therefore, seem to be 

 the best season to visit Gurhwal ; but unfortunately it is very 

 cold at that season, especially in the narrow sunless valleys. 

 Then there is the absence of the beautiful butterflies and 

 flowers, though there are some fine flowers even in winter, 

 such as the lovely tree convolvulus with white flowers 

 {Parana paniculata), the Acanth (Hexacentris coccinca) with 

 deep red flowers ; and the cherry is in full bloom during 

 winter. 



The mention of these Gurhwal winter flowers leads me next 

 to speak of 



Plants. 



Ourhwal was the first place in the Himalayas of which the 

 botany was investigated. This was done so long ago as 1796. 

 The father of Himalayan botany, Major-General Hardwick, 

 spent the months of April and May of that year plant-collect- 

 ing in Gurhwal. This was before the Goorkha conquest. 

 After that event, Gurhwal was practically closed to the visits 

 of European travellers. Many of his plants seem to have 

 been named for him by the great Calcutta botanist, Wallich ; 

 and Eoxburgh, of Madras, named after him one of the finest 

 trees of Central India, calling it Hardwickia binata. His 

 collection is, of course, enumerated in Linntean order, but it 

 was the only local flora I had when I visited Gurhwal, and 

 I will follow it in this paper. I must add the autumn flowers, 

 as he only gives the spring ones, and gives them in many 

 cases with names different from those now employed. In all 

 such cases I will adopt the modern names, not those given by 

 General Hardwick. The first plant he mentions was also the 

 first that caught my eye, growing on the green banks of the 

 smaller rivers — Curcuma angustifolia, with yellow flowers and 

 beautiful rosy-red bracts. Then follow in his list three species 

 of jasmine, and the little, pink, perennial Andrpsace rotundifolia, 

 so named by Wallich, but confounded in Europe with Wallich's 

 white-flowering annual Androsace incisa. l^ext follow two 

 common Gurhwal shrubs — the white, purple-spotted Leycesteria 



I 



