THE VEGETATION OF TEMPERATE AND ALPINE SIKHIM. Ill 



nearly all that could be comprised in this section. The remaining 

 orders and a part of those already given yield dry, uneatable fruits 

 with usually numerous and small seeds. How the distribution of the 

 lighter seeds is effected is a question easily answered when we 

 remember the power of the ever-blowing gales. Of birds, which are 

 everywhere known as active agents for the dispersal of plants, the 

 finches, so numerous at high elevations in summer, must bear a large 

 share in the task of aiding the spread of plants with large seeds. 



Enough has been said to point out the infinite variety of the 

 vegetation of the Sikhim Himalaya, which contains in its whole extent 

 types of every flora from the tropics to the poles, and probably no 

 other country of equal or larger extent on the globe can present so 

 many features of interest or so many problems for the solution to the 

 thoughtful naturalist. 



