82 THE TROPICAL WORLD. 



provides the Mexican with his favourite beverage. The oaks 

 acquire a sturdier growth ; and at an elevation of about eight 

 thousand feet, the dark forests of pine announce that he has 

 entered the tierra /Ha, or cold region, — the third and last of 

 the great natural terraces into which the country is divided. 



Loaded with vapours, the prevailing southerly sea-winds, 

 after crossing the dead level occupied by the delta of the 

 Granges and Burrampooter, strike against the mountain-spurs 

 of Sikkim, the dampest region of that stupendous chain, and 

 expending their moisture on their flanks, clothe them with a 

 thick mantle of verdure to an enormous height. The giant 

 peaks of Donkiah, Kinchinghow, and Kinchinginga, the third 

 great mountain of the world (28,178 feet), form the culmina- 

 ting points of this magnificently wooded region, and look down 

 upon the dense forests which, varying as they rise, extend 

 between the plains of Bengal and their own perpetual snows. 



Dark green woods, of an exclusively tropical character, cover 

 the valleys and declivities to a height of from 4,000 to 5,000 

 feet. Mighty palms rise above the mass of the forest, while 

 innumerable shrubs cover the ground. The prevalent timber 

 is gigantic, and scaled by climbing leguminosse, bauhinias, and 

 robinias, which sometimes sheathe the trunks, or span the forest 

 with huge cables, joining tree to tree. Large bamboos rather 

 crest the hills than court the deeper shade, of which there is 

 abundance, for the torrents cut a straight and steep course 

 down the hill-flanks. The gulleys which they traverse are 

 choked by vegetation, and bridged by fallen trees, whose trunks 

 are clothed with epiphytical orchids, pendulous lycopodia, 

 ferns, pothos, peppers, vines, bignonias, and similar types of the 

 hottest and dampest climates. The beauty of the drapery of 

 the pothos leaves is pre-eminent, whether for the graceful folds 

 of the foliage or for the liveliness of its colour. Of the more 

 conspicuous smaller trees the wild banana is the most abundant, 

 its broad crown contrasting with the smaller-leaved plants 

 amongst which it nestles ; next comes a screw-pine, with a 

 straight stem and a tuft of leaves, each eight or ten feet long, 

 waving on all sides. 



At an elevation of about four thousand feet many plants of 

 the temperate zone, increasing in numbers as the traveller 



