THE CYCLONE AT CALCUTTA. 373 
third of the stem and branches remain. Among Cojiifem, the destruc- 
tion of all the trees q[ Finns longifoUa deserves notice; also of a xer^ 
large specimen of Dammara orientalls introduced from Amboina in 
1798. Palms, and indeed Eudogen^^ generally, have escaped with little 
injury. Only two species of palms have suffered severely, onthAreca 
CatecJiti, the commou Betel-nut Palm, of ^vhich hardly a specimen 
remains, and Ai-enga saccharifera, most of the trees of which have been 
blown out of the perpendicular, although few of them have "been up- 
rooted. The great destruction of exogens by the Cyclone, while endo- 
gens escaped, produced a peculiar effect on the scenery about Calcutta. 
The country, as seen from the roof of my dwelling-house, a height of 
80 feet, appeared to be covered with three species of Palms (Cocos 
nticifera, Phcenix sylvesiris, and Borassus flahelliforyms) and Bamboos. 
The destruction of the foliage of the trees and shrubs at an unnatural 
period, and indeed at the time w^hen the trees had ceased to grow and 
were maturing the w^oody growth of the rainy season, has had a strange 
influence on some species. The most general has been the absence of 
flowers in spring, and departures from the usual course of shedding of 
leaves. Some of the most striking cases are : — First, no flowers have 
been produced by the mango-trees at the usual period. Bnteafrondosa^ 
of which four trees remain, has retained the leaves it produced after the 
gale, and has not flowered at all. The nonnal condition of this tree is 
to remain leafless during winter, and in March to flower profusely, after 
which the leaves appear. The same condition has occurred in Butea 
parvijlora^ B. snperha^ and B. VoiotiL BanJiinia variegata follows the 
same course as the Buteas. This year, although it produced a second 
crop of leaves in October, unlike Batea^ it lost it in December, and the 
only two trees of it left standing flowered abundantly at the usual time 
in March, before the leaves appeared. Terminalia Catappa and all de- 
ciduous Figs, including Mcu^ Indica and venosa, reproduced their leaves 
shortly after the Cyclone, losing them as usual in the last fortnight of 
March and immediately acquiring their full leaf. BoKgaiymllea speda- 
hilis^ one of the most gorgeous sights in the beginning of March, has 
not flowered. The half-prostrate trees of ^/w/tero^//^ «o5/Z/5, produced 
altogether only one abortive spike with sickly flowers, while two young 
plants that flowered freely last year, and are still standing almost uin- 
jured, have show^n none. Jonesia Asoca, which yearly vies in splendour 
y^ith Amherst ia nobilis, produced only afew ill-sl)aped flowers, although 
V 
