372 THE CYCLONE AT CALCUTTA. 
OrchtcIace<^ were entirely lost, and the number of specimens of all 
species much reduced. 
In the nurseries there were about 14,000 of the stronger class of 
plants in pots : these were buried under the ruins of the mahogany 
and mango groves, where the plants were kept for the sake of 
shade. I am glad to be able to report that nearly all these plants 
have been saved, although they had to be left ten days under branches 
and trees. 
All the damage to buildings, to rare plants in pots, and to the nur- 
sery stock is of slight importance when compared with the wholesale 
destruction of trees, many of them tlie growth of seventy years, and the 
pride and ornament of this garden. Had the entire collection of plants 
in pots been lost, the greater part could have been replaced in a com- 
paratively short time, whereas even half a century will not be sufficient 
to restore the trees. Many of them exist nowhere in cultivatipn, and 
some are known only by dried specimens and descriptions of those now 
lost. Many of the most picturesque parts of the garden resulting from 
the grouping of trees, or from well- developed single specimens, no longer 
exist. In the teak avenue, along the road from Kyd's Monument to 
the large bridge over the khal, only two mutilated specimens remain. 
The trees in this avenue were sixty-nine years old. Out of sixty-seven 
mahogany trees thii-ty-one have been blown down, two of which were 
sent to this garden by the Court of Directors of the East India Com- 
pany in 1796. These two trees had attained a circumference of 13 
feet 6 inches, and had produced seed for the last two years. The ma- 
hogany grove consisting of trees forty-five }ears old is destroyed. The 
Casuarina avenue, planted by Dr. Wallich, has suffered severely; only 
four trees are standing, and these much injured. Three of the origi- 
nally introduced specimens of this species, the parents of nearly all the 
Casuarinas near Calcutta, were blown down. The magnificent speci- 
men o( Adansonia digitata, 12 feet in diameter, fell towards the end of 
the gale. All the trees of Amhersiia nobilis have been partially up- 
rooted ; they are supported merely by their branches, and all must be 
removed. The great Banyan received considerable damage, but fortu- 
nately on the north side, where the loss of the branches does not in the 
■ 
least spoil the contour of the tree. The Pinetum, containing many fiue 
Araucarias, suffered much. Of about twenty-five specimens, not one 
has been left with the main stem entire; in most of the trees nearly a 
