372 GEOGRAPHICAL BOTANY. 



and Carex, among which Ranunculacese most commonly 

 spring up, with Iris, Corydalis, and Phalangium. The 

 above measurement of the tree-limit appears to deserve 

 the more confidence and to form an indication of climatic 

 conditions, inasmuch as on the Kedarkanta the soil and 

 inclination of the summit were favorable to forest growth. 

 Towards the end of his extended tours through the 

 East Indian peninsula, Jacquemont's attention was drawn 

 to an important peculiarity in the progress of the vegeta- 

 tion on the eastern coast of the district of the Ganges 

 (Hi, p. 550). In Bengal the soil remains green through- 

 out the year, because the water flows off these plains so 

 slowly, that it is retained deep in the soil during the dry 

 season ; also because in the winter dense fogs, and in the 

 hot and dry months of spring, transient thunder-showers 

 occur. Thus, when the traveller landed, on the 5th of 

 May, at Calcutta (therefore on the coast), the turf was 

 just as green as at the period of the heaviest precipitations 

 in August. The treeless country of Puna, in the western 

 Ghauts, however, in 1832 remained perfectly arid and 

 parched, even in the latter third of June, just like the 

 soil of the steppes ; the surface of earth was without a 

 trace of moisture, and, as it were, glowing in the sun's 

 rays. Yet on the 1st of July the whole country was green, 

 even the barest rocks had become covered with turf with 

 wonderful rapidity. Hence the character of the mon- 

 soon flora is much more distinctly stamped here than 

 at Calcutta : but the Bengal coast is anomalous in this 

 respect. In the greater part of India, the vegetation of 

 most of the plants is interrupted for a longer period by 

 the dry season, than in Europe by the winter. The large 

 shrubs, the sugar-cane plantations, and the turf of Panicese 

 wither and dry up in November, and their vegetative life 

 is not again aroused until June or July of the following 

 year. At Puna the rainy season then lasted but little 

 more than three months, and ceased at the beginning of 

 November; but that year threatened to be unproductive, 

 in consequence ' of too small an amount of rain having 

 fallen. 



