282 KHASIA MOUNTAINS. Chap. XXIX. 



Indian flora (including those of Ceylon, Kashmir, and all 

 the Himalaya), hardly contains 400. Scitaminece also are 

 abundant, and extremely beautiful ; we collected thirty- 

 seven kinds. 



No rhododendron grows at • Churra, but several species 

 occur a little further north : there is but one pine (P. 

 Khasiana) besides the yew, (and two Podocarpi), and that 

 is only found in the drier interior regions. Singular to 

 say, it is a species not seen in the Himalaya or elsewhere, 

 but very nearly allied to Pinus longifolia* though more 

 closely resembling the Scotch fir than that tree does. 



The natural orders whose rarity is most noticeable, are 

 Cniciferce, represented by only three kinds, and Caryo- 

 jjhyllece. Of Ranunculacete, there are six or seven species of 

 Clematis, two of Anemone, one Delphinium, three of Thalic- 

 trum, and two Ranunculi. Composites and Leguminosce 

 are far more numerous than in Sikkim. 



The climate of Khasia is remarkable for the excessive 

 rain-fall. Attention was first drawn to this by Mr. Yule, 

 who stated, that in the month of August, 1841, 264 

 inches fell, or twenty-two feet ; and that during five suc- 

 cessive days, thirty inches fell in every twenty-four hours ! 

 Dr. Thomson and I also recorded thirty inches in one 

 day and night, and during the seven months of our stay, 

 upwards of 500 inches fell, so that the total annual fall 

 perhaps greatly exceeded 600 inches, or fifty feet, which 



* Cone-bearing pines with long leaves, like the common Scotch fir, are found in 

 Asia, and as far south as the Equator (in Borneo) and also inhabit Arracan, 

 the Malay Peninsula, Sumatra, and South China. It is a very remarkable fact 

 that no Gynmospermous tree inhabits the Peninsula of India; not even the 

 genus Podocarpus, which includes most of the tropical Gymnosperms, and is 

 technically coniferous, and has glandular woody fibre ; though like the yew it 

 bears berries. Two species of this genus are found in the Khasia, and one 

 advances as far west as Nepal. The absence of oaks and of the above genera 

 (Podocarpus and Pinus) is one of the most charactez-istic differences between 

 the botany of the east and west shores of the Bay of Bengal. 



