80 VEGETATION. 



VEGETATION. 



Note. The works consulted for tliis paper are Hooker's " Himalayan Journals ;'| 



Hooker and Thomson's " Flora Indica ;" " Hooker's Flora of India ;" 

 Clarke's "Ferns of JS'orthern India;" King's "Annals of the Eoyal 

 Botanic Garden, Calcutta;" Gamble's "Trees, Shrubs and Large Climbers 

 found in the Darjeeling District," and Watt's " Dictionary of Economic 

 Products." 



J. Gammie-19-9-91. 



Sir J. D. Hooker, who is the greatest authority on the vegeta- 

 tion of Sikliim, in his Introductory Essay to the Flora Indica, divides 

 the country into three zones. The lower, stretching from the lowest 

 level up to 5,000 feet above the sea, he called the tropical zone ; 

 thence to 13,000 feet, the upper limit of tree vegetation, the tem- 

 perate ; and above, to the perpetual snow line at 16,000 feet, the 

 Alpine. In describing the aspect of the country he says that up 

 " to an elevation of 12,000 feet, Sikhim is covered with a dense 

 forest, only interrupted where village clearances have bared the 

 slopes for the purpose of cultivation." At the present time, how- 

 ever, this description does not apply below 6,000 feet, the upper 

 limit at which Indian-corn ripens; for here, owing to increase of 

 population, almost every suitable part has been cleared for cultiva- 

 tion, and trees remain only in the rocky ravines and on the steepest 

 slopes where no crop can be grown; but above 6,000 feet the face 

 of the country still remains comparatively unaltered. He continues — 

 "The forest consists everywhere of tall umbrageous trees; with 

 little underwood on the drier slopes, but often dense grass jungle; 

 more commonly, however, it is accompanied by a luxuriant under- 

 growth of shrubs, which render it aluiost impenetrable. In the 

 tropical zone large figs abound, with TerminaUa, Vatica, Mi/rtace(e, 

 Laurels, Euphorhiucece, Meliacece, Bauhinia, Bombax, Morus, Arfocarpiis, 

 and other Urtkaceie and many Lcguminoscc ; and the undergrowth 

 consists of Acanthactte, Bamboo, several Calami, two dwarf Aretw, 

 Wallichia, and Carrjota tirens. Plantains and tree-ferns, as well_ as 

 Pandanus, are conmion ; and, as in all moist tropical countries, 

 ferns, orchids, Scitaminece, and Pathos are extremely abundant. Few 

 oaks are found at the base of the mountains, and the only conifers 

 are a species of Podocarpus and Pinus longifolia, which frequent 

 the drier slopes of hot valleys as low as 1,000 feet above the level 

 of the sea, and entirely avoid the temperate zone. The other tropical 

 Gvnmosperms are Cijcas pecVnata and Gndum scandens, genera which 

 find their north-western limits in Sikliim. 



