INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. 161 



from the mountains. Along the base of the Himalaya it is 

 greatest to the eastward, and becomes much less in the ex- 

 treme west. Close to the mountains the amount of fall is 

 not known, but at Benares it is 54 inches, at Gorakpur it is 

 50 inches, at Moradabad 41 inches, and at Saharunpur only 

 30 inches. Further from the hills the fall at Meerut is 30 

 inches, at Alighar 24 inches, at Fattighar 22 inches, at Pani- 

 pat 25 i inches, at Delhi 21 1 inches, at Agra 19| inches, at 

 Cawnpore 23 inches, at Allahabad 33 inches, and at Mirzapur 

 35 inches. These numbers present many irregularities, and 

 are probably not to be relied on, but they suffice to show the 

 diminution of rain as the distance from the Himalaya increases. 

 Nor is the reduced rain-fall an accurate indication of the 

 change of climate, as the atmosphere near the mountains is 

 shown by the dew-point observations to be much more moist 

 at all seasons than at a distance. 



The flora of the Gangetic plain varies with the degree of 

 humidity. The surface (except along the base of the moun- 

 tains) is nowhere clothed with forest, but uncultivated tracts 

 are usually covered with a loose bush-jungle, in which Butea 

 frondosa,Flacourtia sepiaria, Cap2?aris sepiaria yZizyphrtsJujiiha 

 and (Enoplia, Adhatoda Vasica, and Carissa edulis are among 

 the commonest shrubs, till the climate becomes too dry for them, 

 when they are gradually replaced by the vegetation of the 

 Panjab region, which usually advances as far as the Jumna, 

 and now and then penetrates a little way into the Doab; in- 

 deed several of the species which are most characteristic of 

 the arid flora, as, for instance, Tecoma undulata and Berthe- 

 lotia lanceolata, were first collected by General Hardwicke in 

 the neighbourhood of Cawnpore. Alhagi is also found in the 

 same district, and Peganum Harmala is recorded as a native 



of Monghir. 



If we exclude this dry country flora, which just skirts the 



southern part of the plain, the vegetation of the Gangetic 



plain presents few peculiar features ; indeed a catalogue of the 



plants of Rohilkhand contains very few species which are not 



y 



