. Mution in 
BOTANICAL EXCURSION IN THE NEIGHBOURHOOD OF COURTALLAM. 
tanists of our day, Dr. Wallich, Dr. Wight, 
and Mr. Royle, in furthering the course of 
Indian Botany, have thrown a new light 
upon the Natural History of our widely- 
extended Asiatic possessions, and have 
been the means of making known a vast 
quantity of useful plants, which cannot fail 
to be of the greatest importance to the 
world in general, and to the East India 
Company in particular. 
Each of the above-mentioned gentlemen 
has been placed under circumstances in 
India, the best calculated for the purpose 
of exploring a wide extent of country. To 
Dr. Wight has been assigned, as it were, 
the vast southern Peninsula of India; to 
Dr. Wallich, Hindostan, Sylhet, &c., while 
his extended journies to the Himalaya 
Mountains, and his present one to Assam 
with the view of establishing the cultiva- 
tion of the Tea-plant, embrace such a field 
as no one before him ever had the privi- 
lege of exploring; and to Mr. Royle, the 
northern and most mountainous provinces 
of India, or indeed of the whole world, with 
the vegetation of which he is now making 
us familiar. Dr. Wight, after completing, 
in conjunction with his friend Mr. Amott, 
the first volume of the Flora of the Penin- 
sula of British Jndia, has returned to that 
country, and is now (1836) stationed at 
Palamcottah of Tinevelly, in the south of 
the Peninsula. The visit to Courtallam, 
here described by him, was a professional 
one, which necessarily prevented him from 
devoting his whole time to the Botanical 
investigation of the district —Ed. 
Courtallam, or Kootallum, as it is usually 
pronounced, is a very inconsiderable vil- 
lage, situated in N. Lat. 9°, and E. Long. 
77° 26', near the foot of the range of 
mountains which traverses the Peninsula 
from North to South. At this part, the 
‘Tange seems to retire towards the West, 
forming, as it were, a small recess sur- 
Tounded on three sides by hills, which near 
Courtallam undergo a considerable dimi- 
= their height, and are, besides, 
» divided by a deep but narrow pass, lead- 
ing directly across to the Malabar coast. 
327 
Owing to this break, and diminution in 
height, part of the western monsoon passes 
over in the form of thick clouds, frequent 
showers of rain, and very strong westerly 
winds. The united influence of these 
causes reduces the temperature of this spot 
from 10 to 15 degrees below that of the 
surrounding country. This of itself would 
be sufficient to attract visitors during the 
hot months of June, July, and August; 
but there are other inducements of a not 
less enticing description. There all is green 
and lively, when the plain below is burnt 
up, and scarcely a blade of grass to be 
seen; the scenery is rich and varied, and 
enlivened by a series of beautiful cascades, 
the fall of the lowest of which, though 
200 feet in height, is so broken in the 
descent as to be a favorite bathing place, 
where the visitors enjoy a shower-bath on 
the most magnificent scale. The surround- 
ing scenery is, I think, the richest I have 
anywhere seen in India. You are aware 
that I am no painter; you must not there- 
fore be disappointed if I fail in present- 
ing to your mind’s eye such a landscape 
as now offers itself to mine. I shall, how- 
ever, with the aid of Geology, make the 
attempt. The hills here are all trap, pre- 
senting the characteristic features of that 
class of rocks, such as sharp broken ridges, 
high peaks, and nearly perpendicular sides, 
traversed by deep ravines and chasms, 
down which the mountain streams tumble 
with noisy impetuosity. The shelving and 
less steep flanks of these hills are covered 
with a loose, red, and very fertile soil, 
formed partly of disintegrated rock, partly 
of decayed vegetable matter. These shelves 
and slopes are densely clothed with a ve- 
getation highly varied, and of truly tropical 
luxuriance, the whole presenting to the 
view a mixture of delicate verdure, dark 
forests, and black, almost perpendicular, 
naked cliffs, forming together, a rare com- 
bination of beauty and grandeur. The 
narrow glen along which the principal 
stream pursues its rapid course, looks 
almost as if excavated from the solid rocks, 
as its sides, at some places, are close to 
the water's edge and nearly perpendicular ; 
