Oct. 1819. ARRIVAL AT CHOONGTAM. 185 



The villagers at Keadom, where we slept on the 26th, 

 were busy cutting the crops of millet, maize, and Amaran- 

 thus. A girl who, on my way down the previous month, 

 had observed my curiosity about a singular variety of the 

 maize, had preserved the heads on their ripening, and now 

 brought them to me. The peaches were all gathered, and 

 though only half ripe, were better than Dorjiling produce. 

 A magnificent tree of Bucklandia, one of the most beautiful 

 evergreens in Sikkim, grew near this village; it had a 

 trunk twenty-one feet seven inches in girth, at five feet 

 from the ground, and was unbranched for forty feet.* 

 Ferns and the beautiful air-plant Cmhgyne Wallichii grew 

 on its branches, with other orchids, while Clematis and 

 Stauntonia climbed the trunk. Such great names 

 (Buckland, Staunton, and Wallich) thus brought before 

 the traveller's notice, never failed to excite lively and 

 pleasing emotions : it is the ignorant and unfeeling alone 

 who can ridicule the association of the names of travellers 

 and naturalists with those of animals and plants. 



We arrived at Choongtam (for the fourth time) at noon, 

 and took up our quarters in a good house near the temple. 

 The autumn and winter flowering plants now prevailed 

 here, such as Labiatce, which are generally late at this 



and has been noticed by Humboldt, "Pers. Narr." i v. 195, who states that on 

 Christianity being introduced into Iceland, the natives refused to be baptised 

 in any but the water of the Geysers. I have mentioned at p. 117 the uses to which 

 the Yeumtong hot springs are put ; and the custom of using artificial hot baths 

 is noticed at vol. i., p. 305. 



* This superb tree is a great desideratum in our gardens ; I believe it would thrive 

 in the warm west of England. Its wood is brown, and not valuable as timber, 

 but the thick, bright, glossy, evergreen foliage is particularly handsome, and so is 

 the form of the crown. It is also interesting in a physiological point of view, from 

 the woody fibre being studded with those curious microscopic discs so character- 

 istic of pines, and which when occurring on fossil wood are considered conclusive 

 as to the natural family to which such woods belong. Geologists should bear in 

 mind that not only does the whole natural order to which Bucklandia belongs, 

 possess this character, but aleo various species of Magnoliaccai found in India, 

 Australia, Borneo, and South America. 



