100 



MANUAL OF THE NILAGIRI DISTRICT. 



CHAP. VI. 2nd Trad.— The Moist Evergreen Forests of the Sloijes.— These 

 Flora. ^^^ grandest on the western slopes, and between 3^000 and 4,000 



. feet elevation, where the trees often attain 200 and 250 feet in 



green fwe'sts height. They are all evergreen, and their great variety of foliage 

 of the slopes, and colour renders them exceedingly beautiful, some of the young 

 leaves coming out pure white, others a bright crimson, others all 

 possible tints of brown, yellow, red, and green. These tracts are 

 exceedingly moist from the first showers in March till the end of 

 December, and during that season abound with leeches. The 

 trees are often covered with epiphytic orchids, ferns, mosses, 

 balsams, and cyrtandracece, and there is a glorious profusion of 

 rattans, tree-ferns, climbing ferns, and fine creepers. But what 

 may be said to be most characteristic of these forests is the 

 genus Strohilanthes {Acanthacece) , large shrubs, which form the 

 principal underwood, and of which 29 species are found on these 

 hills. Some of these flower every year, others however only after 

 a growth of six or seven years, when they die down and renew 

 themselves from seed. They almost all have showy flowers, and 

 many are very beautiful. The two palms, Caryota urens and 

 Arenga Wightii, are very conspicuous in these tracts, also several 

 specimens of rattan (Calamus), and three very fine reed bamboos, 

 Beesha Rheedii, Oxytenaidhera Thwaitesii (Munro), and Teinos- 

 tachyum Wightii (a very handsome broad-leaved species, described 

 by Munro as a bambusa from specimens only in leaf) . Ferns are 

 in great profusion, including several tree-ferns, amongst which 

 the Alsophila crinita (not yet introduced into English hot-houses) 

 unmatched in any country, is very beautiful. Sonerilas and 

 balsams are also in profusion. Guttiferce, Ruhlacem, and Euphor- 

 biacece are the orders perhaps most copiously represented (next 

 to Acanthaceoi) , the first by trees, the two last by shrubs and 

 trees. 



Above 4,000 feet these forests begin to decrease in size, and 

 towards the plateau they gradually pass into what will be treated 

 of as the Sholas or woods. 



—characteris. The following is a list of the trees most characteristic of these 



tic trees. forests:— 



Polyalthia coffeoides. 



Garcinia Cambogia and Morella. 



Calophyllum tomentosum. 



Mesua speciosa and Coromandelina. 



pJBciloneuron Indicum. 



Dipterocarpus turbinatiis. 



Hopca parviflora and Malabarica. 



Valeria Indica. 



Cullenia excelsa. 



Leptonychia moaccuroides. 



Chickrassia tabularis. 



Canarium strictum. 



Aglaia Roxburghiana. 



Beddomea Indica and eimplicifolia. 

 Gomphandra axillaris and polj-morpha. 

 Euonynius Indicus and angulatus. 

 Lophopetalum Wightianum. 

 Harpulia cupanoides. 

 Acrocarpus fraxinifolius. 

 Humboldtia Brunonis and Vahliana. 

 Saprosma fragrans, Wightii, and glome. 



rata. 

 Bassia elliptica. 

 Pajanelia Kheedii. 

 Myristica laurifolia and corticosa. 

 Alseodapline semicarpi folia. 



