FLOWER FRIENDS 27 



at elevations from 7,000 to 8,500 feet, and flowers 

 during February and March. The flowers are white 

 and from 2 to 2^ inches in diameter. The lip is 

 speckled with purple towards the edge. 



Not so common but larger and handsomer than 

 the dendrobiums are the cymbidiums, of which there 

 are sixteen different species, usually with long grassy 

 leaves and many-flowered drooping racemes ,with 

 large handsome flow r ers. A very sweet-scented 

 species is the Cymbidium eburneum, which is 

 common between elevations of 1,000 to 3,000 feet, 

 and flowers during March and April. The prevail- 

 ing colour of the flowers is an ivory white, but the 

 ridge on the lip is a brilliant yellow. This also may 

 be seen at Kew in March. 



These are some of the commonest orchids and 

 all now grow in England, so that we can begin to 

 get a footing in the forest and not feel that it is so 

 completely strange to us. And as we ascend higher 

 we shall find many more friends among the flowers. 

 And to guide us among the trees and flowers we 

 fortunately have Sir Joseph Hooker, who in his 

 44 Himalayan Journals " has described this botanist's 

 paradise in loving detail, so we cannot do better 

 than follow him. Amid the many plants he 

 mentions we can only select a few, but these 

 few will at least help to give us some conception of 

 the whole and show the range of variation as we 

 ascend. 



As we proceed higher up the valley to an altitude 

 of about 4,000 feet, European trees and plants begin 

 to be intermingled with the tropical vegetation. 

 Hornbeams appear, and birch, willow, alder, and 



