

1848.] The Turaee and Outer Mountains of Kumaoon. 381 



a new interest is thrown on the plains of Hindoostan by their identifi- 

 cation with the seat of the terrestrial Paradise, " Eastward in Eden." 

 The conquests of Cyrus would carry the Mythus into the western hemi- 

 sphere.* Pliny, stating that the fruit of F. indica is rare, and not above 

 the size of a bean, adds, " sed per folia solibus coctus prsedulci sapore, 

 dignus miraculo arboris." One of the Sanscrit names is Vrikshadun, 

 Food-tree. 



Abrus : a pretty climbing species, perhaps the pulchellus of Wallich, 

 is abundant in the hedges about Kotah, and in the mouth of the 

 Pass : it is called " Luggoolee Imlee," " climbing Tamarind," and is, 

 I think, confined to this neighbourhood. 



Mimosa pudica : " Lajuwuntee." The sensitive plant is completely 

 naturalized, and grows everywhere about this part of the Kotah Dhoon. 



Saurauja nepalensis. Vallies at 3000 — 4000 feet. 



Pladera virgata : (by Kools.) 



Ipomea pilosa, and I. hirsuta. (Bed of the Dubka.) 



* In an analysis of the Pudma Puran, given in the Journal As. Soc. for 1842, No, 

 131, pp. 1129, 1130, we have a further and very curious illustration of this subject con- 

 ceived in the spirit of indelicacy and piety so familiar to the Hindoo mind : 



" It came to pass that the wives of the Tripoorasoors were dancing- round the Uswuttha 

 (Peepul) which is the king' of trees, and endeavouring to obtain the fruit which hung 

 from its lofty branches. Vishnoo, assuming- the form of a priest, told them that they 

 would not be able to procure the fruit unless they danced round the tree naked. On 

 their obeying his injunction, Vishnoo, pervading the tree as he pervades all things in 

 heaven and earth, shook it with a noise like thunder : the women, being frightened, clung 

 naked round the tree, which immediately assumed the form of a naked young man, in 

 whose embraces they enjoyed the fruit of their desires, but lost that virtue which gave im- 

 mortality to their husbands." 



On a former occasion the suggestion was ventured that Peepul and Populus are the 

 same word : " Gur-peepul" is an usual name of P. ciliata in Kumaoon : and it is evident 

 the received etymologies of Populus are forced and uncertain. Bullet (Arboretum Bn~ 

 tannicum) thinks it was so called from the motion of the leaves resembling the acts and 

 thoughts of a free and enlightened but fickle populace : others that it arose from the cir- 

 cumstance that the public places at Rome were planted with this tree, hence called arbor 

 populi, as the Spanish Alameda is from alamo, for the same reason. But why did the 

 Romans select the Poplar? May it not have been from some lingering association 

 brought by their ancestors from the east : their language is full of Sanscrit forms and 

 terms : why should not Sancrit ideas have been imported with them, and the Poplar 

 chosen as the best representative of the Peepul ? The latter is sacred to Vishnoo, the sun : 

 and we find the former connected with the legend of Phaethon, whose sisters, the daugh- 

 ters of the sun, were metamorphosed into Poplars. 



3 D 



