362 Observations made on a Botanical Excursion. [Oct. 



The workmen employed at the pits use water from the hookah in pre- 

 ference to any other, for the manufacture of gunpowder, but I could 

 not ascertain that there were any good grounds for this choice. The 

 charcoal is made from an Acacia {Catechu ?) ; that from Justicia 

 Adhatoda is more generally used in India ; Calotropis wood in Arabia. 

 The pith of all these plants is large, whereas in England, closer-grained 

 and more woody trees, especially willows, are preferred. 



A few miles beyond Taldangah the junction of the sandstone and 

 gneiss rocks forming the elevated table-land of upper Bengal, is passed 

 over. From beyond Burdwan the country slopes gradually up to Tal- 

 dangah, but travelling by dawk at night, I could not estimate the 

 amount of rise. From the latter station the ascent is still gradual, 

 without any material interruption at the change in geological formation. 

 Both sides of the road, and both formations are singularly barren, and 

 the primitive rocks perhaps more so than the sandstone, from the copi- 

 ous effloresced salts, and frequency of masses of granite and quartz 

 protruded through the soil. Good-sized timber is nowhere seen : 

 the trees are stunted, chiefly Butea frondosa, Diospyros, Terminalia, 

 and shrubs oiZizyphus, and Acacia, Grislea tomentosa and Carissa Ca- 

 randas. 



The altitude of Gyra is about 652 feet above the sea : it is the 

 first station on the primitive table-land, which extends from this to 

 Dunwah pass, and whose culminant point here is Parus Nath • Main 

 path being another plateau, I believe on the same range of hills, but 

 farther S. W. Parus Nath, the eastern metropolis of Jain worship, as 

 mount Abo is the western, is seen towering far above all the other emi- 

 nences, and so isolated as to form from every side a noble feature in the 

 landscape. All other hills are low ridges, running in various directions. 

 Bamboo certainly forms one third of the jungle on these hills, and from 

 its tints, varying from bright green to absolute whiteness, it gives some 

 variety to the coloring. Acanthacea, in number of species, prevail 

 beyond any other natural order, both as herbs and bushes ; but the 

 Zizyphus is the next plant in abundance to the Bamboo, and next the 

 Carissa Carandas. 



The cultivation is here, as elsewhere along these elevated plains, very 

 wretched, for though alluvion is spread over the schists, the rocks are 

 so dislocated as often to be thrown up at right angles, when their de- 



