at considerable elei^ations in the Himalaya. 347 



of magnesian limestone reposing on clay-slate, in the eastern ex- 

 tremity of Kemaon, its loftiest summits attaining the elevation 

 of 8221 feet above Calcutta : the base of the mountain, as marked 

 out by the deep gorges of the Surjoo and Kalee rivers, only 

 1500 feet above the sea, and occupied by a tropical vegetation, 

 cannot be under sixty miles in circuit. The zone of Pinus lon- 

 gifolia, which forms vast forests on its declivities, extends verti- 

 cally from 2000 to about 7000 feet ; the summits, for perhaps 

 400 feet, are denuded of all arboreous vegetation, and exhibit, as 

 usual in the Himalaya, bare tracts of mere rock*, or meadows of 

 luxuriant grass [Rhaphis Roylei, Arundinella,hirsuta, &c.), Ophelia, 

 Gentiana, Saxifraga, Primula, &c. Below these comes the zone 

 where flourish luxuriant forests of Quercus incana, lanata and 

 floribunda, Acer, Ilex, Pavia, Rhododendron, Andromeda, Sym- 

 plocos, Taxus, Berberis, and other northern forms ; amidst these, 

 in damp shady glens on the north and south-east, but chiefly on 

 the north-west exposure, the Chamarops is found in great num- 

 bers, forming clumps and rows, the trees rising from 30 to 50 

 feet high, each with its superb crown of large flabelliform leaves, 

 rattling loudly to the breeze. At 6 feet from the ground the 

 stems are 2 feet in circumference, but become thicker above. 

 The flowers appear in April and May, and the fruit, which is of 

 a dark glossy blue, about half an inch long, ripens in October, 

 and at the period of my visit (March 20, 1 847) lay strewed in 

 abundance at the foot of the trees, where large beds of snow 

 remained unmelted, and where rich beds of Primula denticulata 

 were in full bloom. The lowest specimens observed were at about 

 6500 feet, but they reached their perfection in numbers and 

 stature at 7800, from which we may fairly infer, that had cir- 

 cumstances been favourable by the addition of some thousand 

 feet to the altitude of the moimtain, they would have ascended 

 considerably higher. But in the site actually occupied by them, 

 the mean annual temperature cannot be under that of London t, 

 and though the summer be very warm, snow generally covers the 

 ground from November till March. On the ascent of the moun- 

 tain. Phoenix was abundant both in its dwarf and arboreous 

 forms at 4000 feet, while Harina forms extensive thickets in the 

 river valley at its base. 



The presence of Chamarops at such an elevation has its parallel 

 in America, where, on the Andes of Quindiu and Tolima, in about 



* A phaenomenon, by the way, which illustrates the prophecy in Micah, 

 iii. 12. " Therefore shall Ziou for your sake be plowed as a field, and Jeru- 

 salem shall become heaps, and the mountain of the house as the high places 

 of the forest ." 



t Ch. Martiana has proved perfectly hai-dy at 19° Fahrenheit during the 

 past winter. (Gardeners' Chronicle, April 9, 185.3, p. 2.30.) 



23* 



