No. 199. J 487 



who views those masses so far, more gigantic than our Alps, or the 

 And^s, which bow their lofty heads before the Himalaya, of which 

 one summit the Kinchin Jujiga, is twenty eig/it thousand and 7wie hun- 

 dred feet above the ocean levely or five miles and an half nearly. It 

 has no rival on the globe. It is difficult to imagine the variety, and 

 the power of the vegetation which covers the foot of the sub-Himalayan 

 mountains, and all along their flanks and rising upwards, insensibly 

 losing their tropical character to assume the features more and more of 

 European plants. All along the road Mr. Hooker, made an ample 

 gathering, a noble harvest, but his most precious discoveries were 

 made at the summit of the sub-Himalayan chain, that of the Rhodo- 

 dendrons, or Rose Trees^ which for their size and beauty of their flowers, 

 leave far behind any thing we ever saw of that remarkable kind. 



Four species of these splendid plants grow spontaneously around 

 Darjeeling. They are called the Dalhousy, Campbell, and the 

 Argenteum, (silva,) and the Arboreum,(tree); and these are associated 

 with Belanophova, (Parasitic plants), with Laurels and with Magnolias. 

 A little farther west, on the frontier of Nepaul, these same species are 

 again found in much greater numbers, and mixed with other species, 

 such as Rhododendron barbatam, or bearded rose tree, and the Falcowi 

 rose tree. We are now obliged to leave Hooker and his perilous adven- 

 turers through rich unexplored regions, that we may have room to give 

 our readers some idea of those singular Rhododendrons, which he has 

 succeeded in getting home to England, alive and well. The word 

 singular, which we have used to characterize them, is not loo strong, 

 for they are^ in most respects, markedly distinct from all before known, 

 both on account of their mode of vegetation and their extraordinary 

 dimensions. In fact some of them are Epiphytes ; that is, grown on 

 trees, burying their roots in the crevices of the bark, and among the 

 mosses on the tree; pretty much like the Orchidea. Such is peculiar- 

 ly the case with the Rose tree Dalhousy, a magnificent shrub of from 

 six to eight feet in length, with slender branches interlacing adjacent 

 plants, and these branches terminating in a bouquet of bell formed 

 flowers, each of which is nearly four inches wide, by four in 

 depth. These vast coralla at first are pure white, but as they grow 

 older become spotted with orange colored spots, which increase their 

 brilliant effect : and not the smallest ornament of this shrub is its leaf 



