of the Himalayan Mountains. 255 



forests, that we can hardly fancy the so-much boasted trees of tropical regions 

 to be more magnificent. One thing is certain, that they do not furnish more 

 valuable timber, whether we consider the English oak, or those found in the 

 Himalayas. {Ibid.) 



Quercus Ballbta, probably described in Persian works under the names shah- 

 bulloot, and bulloot-ool-mulik, having acorns free from tannin, they have been 

 long used as food ; and, with Q. »Suber, might be naturalised in the plains of 

 Northern India. The hazel is abundant in the Himalayas, and the nuts are 

 found every where in the Barjars. 



The bark of Petula alba, reduced to powder, as well as the wood of the 

 black poplar, is eaten by the inhabitants of Kamtschatka, beaten up with the 

 ova of the sturgeon. Cattle are fed on the leaves of Populus nigra, and the 

 coma of the seeds is employed for making paper. That of the Himalayan P. 

 ciliata, being particularly abundant, might be employed for the same purpose. 

 Salix gegyptiaca, the calif, or Egyptian willow, has a fragrant water distilled from 

 its catkins. We pass over several orders to the 



ConijercB. — Under this order Dr. Royle includes the Jbie'tinge, Cupressinae, 

 and Paxinae. Species of almost all the genera belonging to these orders are 

 found in the Himalayas. Cupressus sempervirens, C. pendula, and Phuja 

 orientalis succeed in the gardens of the north and of the south of India. Po- 

 docarpus latifolius occurs in the mountains of Silhet, and P. macrophyllus in 

 Nepaul. The species of Pinus found at the lowest elevation is P. longifolia, 

 allied to P. canadensis. P. excelsa is remarkable for its drooping branches, 

 whence it is frequently called the weeping fir, by travellers in the Himalaya : 

 it is found with the Deodara Narainhetty. Both these noble trees are quite 

 hardy in the climate of Britain. We pass over other interesting matter, already 

 given (through the kindness of Dr. Royle, as we have before mentioned) in 

 the Arboretum Britannicum. Dr. Royle observes, in a note, that the cone lately 

 brought from the Himalayas, by the collector of His Grace the Duke of Devon- 

 shire, and figured in our Arboretum, p. 2236, probably belongs to a variety of 

 P. Pinaster, commonly called P. nepalensis, which we have recorded in the 

 Arboretum Britannicum, p. 2217. 



ATusdcese (from Moy, the Arabic name for the plantain). — This order is ex- 

 tensively distributed in the tropics. All the cultivated varieties are probably 

 derived from the M. sapientum, of which the original is the wild Musa de- 

 scribed by Dr. Roxburgh, as raised by him from seeds received from Chitta- 

 gong. 



" The plantain and banana, therefore, must be natives of Asia ; and no 

 plants can more strikingly display the benefits derivable to one country, from 

 introducing the useful productions of another which is similar in climate, as 

 these are extensively cultivated in America, and as high as 3,000 feet of 

 elevation in the Caraccas. The banana, as Humboldt has remarked, is, for 

 the torrid zone, what the Cerealia are for Europe and Western Asia, or rice for 

 Bengal and China, and forms a valuable cultivation wherever the mean tem- 

 perature of the year is about 75°. A single cluster often weighs nearly ninety 

 pounds. Humboldt has calculated that, in the space of a year, 1,076 square 

 feet of ground yield more than 4,000 lbs. of nutritive substance ; and that the 

 same space will support fifty individuals, which will not maintain more than 

 two when planted with wheat." (p. 355.) 



Afaranthcess. — This order is remarkable for the quantity of fecula which is 

 stored up in " the rhizomata, or the so-called roots, of several species, which, in 

 its prepared state, is so well known under the name of Indian Arrow Root. 

 This is obtained in the West Indies from Maranta arundinacea, Allouvia, and 

 nobilis ; also from Canna glauca, called ' tous les mois ;' and in the East 

 Indies, from a species of Curcuma, as well as from Maranta ramosissima, a 

 new species found in Silhet. But it has of late years also been prepared, of fine 

 quality, from M. arundinacea, grown in their gardens by the Horticultural 

 Society of Calcutta; and was so, many years ago, by the late Sir W. Ainslie, 

 from plants grown in his garden, near Madras. It might, no doubt, be success- 



