March 1849. VEGETATION. 395 



gay Convolvuli, laurels, terrestrial and parasitic OrcAidea, 

 Dillenia, casting its enormous flowers as big as two 

 fists, pepper, figs, and, in strange association with these, a 

 hawthorn, and the yellow-flowered Indian strawberry, which 

 ascends 7,500 feet on the mountains, and Hodgsonia, a new 

 Cucurbitaceous genus, clinging in profusion to the trees, and 

 also found 5000 feet high on the mountains. 



In the evening we rode into the forest (which was dry 

 and very unproductive), and thence along the river-banks, 

 through Acacia Catechu, belted by Slssoo, which often 

 fringes the stream, always occupying the lowest flats. The 

 foliage at this season is brilliantly green ; and as the even- 

 ing advanced, a yellow convolvulus burst into flower like 

 magic, adorning the bushes over which it climbed. 



It rained on the following morning ; after which we left 

 for the exit of the Teesta, proceeding northwards, some- 

 times through a dense forest of Sal timber, sometimes 

 dipping into marshy depressions, or riding through grassy 

 savannahs, breast-high. The coolness of the atmosphere 

 was delicious, and the beauty of the jungle seemed to 

 increase the further we penetrated these primaeval forests. 



Eight miles from Rummai we came on a small river from 

 the mountains, with a Cooch village close by, inhabited 

 during the dry season by timber-cutters from Jeelpigoree : 

 it is situated upon a very rich black soil, covered with 

 Saccharum and various gigantic grasses, but no bamboo. 

 These long grasses replace the Sal, of which we did not see 

 one good tree. 



We here mounted the elephants, and proceeded several 

 miles through the prairie, till we again struck upon the 

 high Sal forest-bank, continuous with that of Rummai and 

 Rangamally, but much loftier : it formed one of many 

 terraces which stretch along the foot of the hills, from 



