88 



but more properly referable to the former, in which grew chiefly nabb^ [Odina Wodier), toukslia 

 (VUex kucoxylon), pyeuma {Layerstroemia floa regiiiae), uagyi (Pterospermtim emiagiltatum), 

 banbwe {Oareya urborea), didu (Boinbax Mnlabaricitm), Isim byuu {DiHenin pentagywi), 

 khaboung {Sirychnoa nux vomica), binga (Stephegyne rotundifolia) , Kwe {Spondias pinnuta), 

 tabwoot gyi (Militina velutina), che ni (Barriiigtonia acutangula), baup (BiUea/rondosa) etc. 



Emerging from the foreets we had to cross over a long tract of fallow paddy-fields which 

 was rather hard work, as by this time (about 9 A. M.) tlie thermometer had risen to 100" iu 

 the shade. Encamped at Kw^ in poeh. This was the hottest day I remember iu Burma, the 

 thermometer being from 100 up to 108 in the best shade 1 could obtain, and at 4J p. m. 

 it was still as high as 100. Whenever a breeze, however gentle, swept over the rice- fields, it 

 resembled a Simoon, and caused the thermometer to rise 1 or 2 degrees. Heavy clouds, liow- 

 ever, appeared on the horizon, and a thunderstorm, with a heavy downpour of raiu succeeded 

 which Bocn cooled the atmospliere. 



29/A April, 1871. Marched as far as Pyoung thay. The forests passed were chiefly 

 savannah forests, but before arriving at the Nyoung chyi douk eug trees were met with 

 which indicates the probable existence of a laterite substratum below the shallow alluvium. 

 Phoenix acaulis, another laterite-loving plant, was also often observed. At Pyoung thay 

 tliere had been no rain the previous day, so the thermometer rose again to 103 in the shade. 



30th April, 1871. Marched as far as Menglan pyu. The forests were at the beginning 

 the same as tliose of former days, but when we approached the sandstone spurs of the xomah, 

 they assumed the character of lower mixed forests. Along a few choungs patches of moist 

 evergreen forests with Kanyin pyu {Dipterocarpus alatns), Kathitka (Pentace Birmanica), 

 Chaetocarpus cas/aneaecarpa, Sterculia campanulata, and St. scaphigera and plenty of bum- 

 maiza (Albizzin stipulata) etc. were met with. The base of the Yomah is here not bordered 

 by laterite as it is further to the north, and the alluvium seems, at least here, to rest directly 

 on permeable sandstone. The laterite seems to disappear on this side about west of Nyoung 

 kyi douk, although ferrugineous pebbly strata of small extent reappear again furtlier south. 

 The rainy season had fairly set iu to-day, and the sky was overcast with heavy clouds. 



Is^ May, 1871. Made an excursion to a place in the Pyu choung iu order to see the telu 

 wa, a bamboo much spoken of by foresters. It was just iu flower and j)roved to be the 

 same as the Kyellowa of the Karens. The sandstone ridges were here, as every where in the 

 Yomah, covered with upper mixed forests, with teak and pyeukadu. Small patclies of ever- 

 greens grew at the bottom of a small choung which we passed as well as along the favour- 

 ably exposed banks of the Pyu choung. 



2itd May, 1871. Rain fell now plentifully, but I pushed on and encamped for the 

 night at Gyo-beng. The forests passed through were all lower mixed forests, with plenty of 

 Kanyin pyu and ongdong {Tetranthera Roxburghii) in more sheltered places. The perennial 

 plants which had been burnt during the hot season, began to appear and some of them stood 

 iu full blossom, but these flowering shoots look very different from the full grown plant when 

 it is in fruit, so much so that it is impossible to identify them without being acquainted with 

 the appearance of the plants under both conditions. Such for instance are Premiia macrophylla, 

 Sauropus quadrangularis, Hemiorchis Birmanica, Aneilema scapiflorum, 2 small sp. of Croton, 

 etc. In addition to these there were numerous Scitamineae now laden with gaudy flowers 

 in places where in the dry season nothing but the bare ground was to be seen. In fact half 

 of the ground -vegetation in these leaf-shedding forests consists during the rainy season, of 

 this order of plants mingled with some terrestrial orchids, Crinum, Leea and some other 

 shrubby perennials and Marantaceae, Curcuma, Amontum, Zingiber, Kaemjj/eria, Phrynium, 

 Maranta and A/pinia. 



'6rd May, 1871. Moved down as far as Thambaya gon on the Toukan choung, where 

 we encamped westwards at a village, the name of which I omitted to note. The forests of 

 to-day were all lower mixed forests. After crossing the Kuu choung, several small eng 

 forests, covered with the usual grasses, but almost destitute of water, were passed. On the 

 grounds situated higher up between the numerous choungs which were now changed by the 

 rains into rapid streams, several small tracts of low forests were met with of that curious 

 intermixture of savannah and true low forests, the chief undergrowth of which were wild 

 sugarcane, while byu {Dilknia pulcherrima) and the tomeutose-leaved toukkyau (Tei'minalia 

 aluta) were the chief trees. A fine patch of moist tropical forest appeared on a low spur 

 of the Yomah, covered by diluvial large siliceous pebbles, intermingled with yellow loam. 



4//t May, 1871. Went as far as Theywa on the Ye noe choung, and encamped opposite 

 a village on this side of the choung. The forests remained the same, but the low forests 

 turned up more regularly on the gravelly high ground between the numerous choungs we 

 passed. Evergreen moist forests appeared on a similar loam, full of large quartz pebbles, 

 and after having passed a small eng forest we arrived at our camjnng ground. 



5//* May, 1871. Continued our march to Bheingda yua on the banks of a choung of the 

 same name, but I could do very little on account of the heavy rains which poured down 



