90 ASPECTS OF TROPICAL NATURE 



feet. They cliiefly consist of duabanga, terminalis, cedrela, 

 and Gordonia Wallichii, the commonest tree in Sikkim, and 

 much prized for ploughshares and other purposes requiring a 

 hard wood. Mighty palms rise above the mass of the forest, 

 while innumerable shrubs cover the ground. The preva- 

 lent timber is gigantic, and scaled by climbing leguminosas, 

 bauhinias, and robinias, which sometimes sheath 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 liveli- 

 ness of its colour. Of the more conspicuous smaller trees 

 the wild banana is the most abundant, its crown of very beau- 

 tiful foliage 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 ascends, 

 begin to mingle with the tropical vegetation, and to impart new 

 charms to the forest ; oaks and walnuts are here seen thriving 

 near palms and arborescent ferns ; mighty rhododendrons 

 expand over thickets of tropical herbage; parasitical orchids 

 adorn the trunks of the oaks, while thalictrons and geraniums 

 blossom underneath. 



At a height of about seven thousand feet the forest assuming 

 a decidedly temperate physiognomy, is chiefly composed of oaks, 

 magnolias, chestnuts, laurels, and walnuts. In many parts ar- 

 borescent rhododendrons prevail, and ferns are generally very 

 abundant. 



About ten thousand feet above the level of the sea begins a 

 zone or belt of conifera3, chiefly characterised by the silver fir 

 (Abies Webb i ana) and the Abies Brunoyikma, a beautiful species. 



