304 An Accotint of Gurhwal, [Sess. 



a plant mucli eaten in Gurhwal. The young shoots are 

 boiled, and are most palatable. I have often eaten them 

 myself, so speak from experience. According to a Gurhwal 

 proverb, a poor man's dinner is 



" Mandua ka roti, 

 Shishauna ka sag" — 



which means bread made from millet {Me^isine coracana), with 

 nothing for kitchen but nettles. The poet who composed this 

 verse had apparently forgotten the existence of ferns, which 

 are even more eaten by the poor than nettles are. The 

 young fronds of two species, called by the people " Lingra " 

 and " Kutra," are most eaten. Both are very common. 

 " Lingra " probably is Nephrodium polymorphum ; " Kutra " 

 probably Nephrodium odoratum. These, at least, are my 

 identifications of them, but I may have been mistaken. My 

 difficulty was that the natives showed me " Lingra " and 

 " Kutra " in the young state, without spores on the back of 

 the leaves, whereas it was only after the spores appeared that 

 it was possible to name the plants from Hooker's ' Synopsis 

 Filicum,' or any other scientific book. 



Of the edible fruits growing wild, by far the best are 

 Myrica sapida and Eleagnus ghiwain. Both are delicious. 

 I should think there are few nicer wild fruits in the world. 

 They are far superior to the raspberries mentioned above. 

 Of the pine family, by far the most common in Lower Gurhwal 

 is Pinus longifolia, with three leaves in each sheath. Pinus 

 excelsa, with five leaves in a sheath, I found only at one 

 place, Kunol, at a height of 10,000 feet above the sea, but 

 there, it was abundant. Along with it I found Abies Smithiana, 

 which is also rare. Picea Pindrow, Picea Webbiana, and 

 Taxus baccata are all common. They are the three most 

 common trees of Upper Gurhwal, as Pinus longifolia, Quercus 

 incana, and Ehododendron arboreum are of Lower Gurhwal. 

 Cupressus torulosa is fairly common. Cedrus deodara is 

 planted round every temple, and is abundant, wild in the 

 north-western part of the country. The river Alaknanda, 

 near its source, runs through a magnificent deodar forest. 

 The junipers grow all over the northern part of Gurhwal, and 

 grow nearer to the line of perpetual snow than any other 



