May, 1849. VEGETATION. 7 



which climbs the loftiest trees, bearing its curious pitcher- 

 shaped flowers near the ground only ; its leaves are said to 

 be good food for cattle. Houttuynia, a curious herb allied 

 to pepper, grew on the banks, which, from the profusion of 

 its white flowers, resembled strawberry-beds ; the leaves 

 are eaten by theLepchas. But the most magnificent plant 

 of these jungles is Hodgsonia, (a genus I have dedicated 

 to my friend, Mr. Hodgson), a gigantic climber allied to 

 the gourd, bearing immense yellowish- white pendulous 

 blossoms, whose petals have a fringe of buff-coloured 

 curling threads, several inches long. The fruit is of a rich 

 brown, like a small melon in form, and contains six large 

 nuts, whose kernels (called " Katior-pot " by the Lepchas) 

 are eaten. The stem, when cut, discharges water profusely 

 from whichever end is held downwards. The "Took* 

 (Hydnocarpus) is a beautiful evergreen tree, with tufts of 

 yellow blossoms on the trunk : its fruit is as large as an 

 orange, and is used to poison fish, while from the seeds an 

 oil is expressed. Tropical oaks and Terminalias are the 

 giants of these low forests, the latter especially, having 

 buttressed trunks, appear truly gigantic ; one, of a kind 

 called " Sung-lok," measured 47 feet in girth, at 5 feet, 

 and 21 at 15 feet from the ground, arid was fully 200 feet 

 high. I could only procure the leaves by firing a ball into 

 the crown. Some of their trunks lay smouldering on the 

 ground, emitting a curious smell from the mineral matter 

 in their ashes, of whose constituents an account will be 

 found in the Appendix. 



Birds are very rare, as is all animal life but insects, and 

 a small fresh- water crab, Thelphusa, (" Ti-hi ' of the 

 Lepchas). Shells, from the absence of lime, are extremely 

 scarce, and I scarcely picked up a single specimen : the 

 most common are species of Cyclostoma. 



