1839.] CapL Pemberton's Mission to Bootan, 1837-38. 275 



In similar places rattans are m demand, and several valuable 

 sorts may be procured. They form the fastening of all the bam- 

 boo work, are used in some places to secure the roofs from the 

 effects of the violence of the winds, and form a great portion of the 

 baskets in which loads are in this country universally carried. These 

 are very convenient receptacles, forming a rather narrow parallelogram ; 

 they are frequently covered with hides, they open at the top, and are 

 the most convenient hill baskets I have hitherto seen. 



The Booteas depend on the plains for supplies of betel-nuts, 

 otherwise they might advantageously cultivate the tree on many 

 of the lower ranges. So far as I had an opportunity of judging, they 

 possess few wild palms of any description, excepting rattans ; I ob- 

 served one, which grows on inaccessible places as high as 2000 feet, 

 and which will probably prove new, but I did not succeed in obtaining 

 the specimen requisite for actually determining whether it is so or not. 

 Ficus elastica, the caoutchouc tree, occurs about Dewangiri, but not 

 in abundance, and may be expected to occur throughout greater part 

 of the ranges between the Plains and an elevation of 3000 feet. 

 They are aware of the properties of the juice, and use it to make 

 vessels formed from split bamboos, water-proof. The Simool tree 

 likewise occurs within similar elevations, but they make no use of it, 

 although in Assam the cotton is used for the manufacture of a very 

 light and excessively warm cloth, excellently adapted for quilting. 



A solitary mango tree occurs here and there in villages even as 

 high as 4000 feet. The finest occurs at Punukka, in the royal 

 gardens, which are emblematic of the poverty and want of hor- 

 ticultural skill in Bootan. It bears its flowers there at a time when 

 the fruit is fully ripe in the Plains. 



Jack trees occur every where about the villages on the lower ranges, 

 and is one of the few fruit trees from which they derive any 

 gratification, These trees thrive remarkably well at elevations of 

 2000 feet, particularly if within the influence of the Plains. 



In villages at similar elevations two or three species of fig may be 

 found, but the fruit is not edible ; no oranges are cultivated with a 

 view to the market ; a few occur in some of the villages ; the tree does 

 not occur above 5500 feet, and in such altitudes it requires a sheltered, 

 sunny place. The oranges which we received as presents, all came 

 from the Plains. With the orange, the shaddock also occurs in toler- 

 able frequence. 



One of the most common fruit trees is the pomegranate, it does 

 not thrive however above an elevation of 4000 feet : I saw no fruit on 



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