at considerable elevations in the Himalaya. 351 



and almost all the deciduous trees proper to a cold region of the 

 globe. During violent storms and heavy rains it cannot but 



valleys of Kemaoa at 3000 feet ; and a fourth, Ulmus integrifolia, allied to 

 the last, abounds at the base of the mountains and all over the plains of 

 India dowTi to Coromandel and Guzerat. In the same warm plains we find 

 Ranunculus sceleratus, as common and as luxuriant down the Ganges to 

 Bengal as in Scotland : a Clematis (C. Gmiriana) is so named from the old 

 capital of Bengal where it was first discovered : a fine rose (JR. involucrata) 

 is wild in Behar at the foot of the Rajmahal hills : a blackberry {Rubus di- 

 stans, Don) is found below the base of the Himalaya ; while Potentilla su- 

 pina and Heynii abound along the Ganges to Calcutta. Of the Coniferae, 

 several genera and species are confined to high temperatures ; e. g. Finns 

 longifolia grows well at Calcutta, but perishes in our chmate. P. sinensis 

 flourishes on the coast of China, at Canton, and south of it. " One true 

 pine is shown to be a native of Sumatra, Finns Merkusii, Jungh. et De 

 Vriese, PI. Ind. Or. fasc. I. tab. 1, probably the P. Finlaysoniana of Wal- 

 lich. Cat. no. 6062, from Cochin China " (Kew Miscellany and Journal of 

 Botany for April 1851, p. 127). The genera Dammara, Fodocarpus, Da- 

 crydium, have their greatest number of species in Nepal, Khasya, Malacca, 

 Java, Penang, and Amboyna ; even Juniperus has a species in Barbadoes 

 (J. Barbadensis), and another (J. aquatica) at Canton; while Cupressus 

 glauca is a native of Goa ; C. sempervirens is quite at home at Agra, with 

 Thuja orientalis. The Coniferae, in short, are, as Dr. Lindley remarks 

 (Vegetable Kingdom), " natives of various parts of the world, from the 

 perpetual snows and inclement climate of Arctic America to the hottest 

 regions of the Indian Archipelago." 



On the other hand, several tropical genera besides those noted in the 

 text have species at great altitudes in tlie mountains. Thus Indigofera 

 has in the Himalaya Indigofera pulchella at 5000 feet, I. heterantha at 

 7000, and J. Gerardiana {Dosua, Don?) to 10,000; all large shrubs and 

 forming extensive thickets. The beautiful Acacia Julibrissin ascends to 

 6500 feet. Dr. Hooker remai-ks (Journal of As. Soc. Bengal for May 

 1849, p. 426), that the general prevalence of bamboos, figs, and their 

 allies the nettles, is a remarkable feature in the botany of the Sikkim 

 Himalaya up nearly to 10,000 feet; " one species of this very tropical ge- 

 nus {Ficus) ascends almost to 9000 feet, on the outer range of Sikkim;" as 

 F. laurifolia does to 6500 feet in the N.W. Himalaya. Gardner notices with 

 surprise and admiration the prevalence of numerous species of this genus 

 forming splendid trees in the forests of the Organ mountains, near Rio 

 Janeiro. Of Laurineae, Cinnamomum has one species' in Sikkim to 8500 

 feet, and Tetranthera another to 9000 (Hooker, I. c.) ; while in the N.W. 

 Himalaya, Daphnidium, Litsaa, &c. have species to the same elevation. 

 In Sikkim, Dr. Hooker mentions Balanopliora with species at 6000, and 

 one even to 8000 feet; and Dr. Thomson found it near Kotgurh, thuty 

 mUes north of Simla, between 6000 and 7000. Of the generaUy tropical 

 family Cinchonacese, the true Cinchonas reach 10,000 feet or more in South 

 America; just as in the Himalaya I found Leptodermis lanceolata at 

 10,000 feet on Dudutoh mountain in Gurhwal. But these anomalies are 

 far too numerous for a note. I must add, however, that the physical con- 

 formation of the Himalaya of itself greatly favours the probabihty of tro- 

 pical and temperate forms becoming associated by storms, torrents, &c. ; 

 for while the deep warm valleys which penetrate fifty or sLxty mdes towards 

 the summit line ai-e filled with a tropical or semitropical vegetation, the 

 lofty ranges which divide them are clothed with forests of the temperate 

 types. 



