178 



left, and biil lillle wood of any description, such small palches as 

 are left being visiteddaily to gatl'ier firewood. Some of Uie hills are 

 sparsely covered with a small fir {Pinus smeiisis Lambert), felled 

 periodically for fuel, and round the villages is usually a clump of 

 trees, the really large ones being generally species of Ficus (or 

 Banyan). Bamboo grows almost everywhere, both the bushy and 

 thorny species, and the tall spindly kind, but the laiter hardly ever 

 attains hère great height and diameter to which it grows on te 

 banks of the West River and its ti'ibutaries. 



Vet the little hill-watercourses aiid tiie narrower and higher parts 

 of the valleys are some of them lilled with (|uite dense jungle, 

 though of loNV growth, and continually eut away or destroyed by 

 tire. The végétation there is raild and surprisingly varied, and on 

 the whole thèse stream-sides are the localities richest in Hemiptera 

 hère. Pandanas odoralissimus is exceedingiy common in thèse 

 ravines, but there are only two or three species of Palm, and they 

 are rather insigniticant looking, though one species of P/fCPJîio- is 

 very common on the sides of the hills. A few iiills attain 3,000 feet 

 in height, but there are many groups 1,000-2,0,00 feet. 



The wet season (S. W. Monsoon) begins about April and ends 

 with Septeniber, the two months inclusive, the average rainfall for 

 thèse six months being about 72 inches, whilst that of the dry season 

 (N. E. Monsoon) is about 13 inches; the usual rainfall is therefore 

 about 85 inches. The two coolest months are .fanuary and l-'ebruary, 

 with a mean température of about 59" Fahrenheit. The summer is 

 verv hot and damp, though the thermometer seldom rises above 

 90" Fahrenheit. The winter is usually very dry, hot during the day 

 but cool at night, and with a few intervais (generally in January 

 and February) of really cold weather, often with fog or drizzly rain. 

 Very violent rain accompanies the typhoons which sometimes 

 occur during July-September inclusive., but it does not seem to 

 destroy mucli insect-life, beyond washing away colonies of Mealy- 

 bugs and Aphides; in fact just after a typhoon there appears to be 

 much hatching of eggs, moulting of skins, and émergence of adults. 

 During the winter the scanty végétation, except on the margins of 

 the numerous little mountain streams and runnels, becomes very 

 parched and dusty, but Hemiptera are fairly plentiful throughout 

 the dry season, though of course some species disappear whilst 

 others take their place. There is no doubt that ail the hills hère 

 were once well wooded, and a few Une trees still left prove what 

 even the most barrenlooking soil hère will produce in the matter 

 of wood if allowed to do so. Probably hosts of Hemiptera as well as 

 Insects of other Orders hâve been long ago exterminated by the 

 daily wood- and grass-cutting and leaf-scraping of the natives. This 



