1848.] Observations made on a Botanical Excursion. 367 



(on the north base of the mountain) at 2 p. m. All the hill people we 

 had observed were a fine-looking athletic race ; they disown the tiger as 

 a neighbour, which every palkee-bearer along the road declares to carry 

 off the torch-bearers, torch and all. Bears they say are scarce and 

 all other wild animals. 



The site of Maddaobund, elevated 1217 feet, in a clearance of the 

 forest, is very beautiful. Fine tamarind trees and a superb Banyan 

 shadow its temples, and the ascent is immediately from the village up a 

 pathway worn by the feet of many a pilgrim, from the most remote 

 parts of India. 



The village was crowded with worshippers, whose numerous vehicles 

 of all shapes and build, reminded one of an electioneering in an Eng- 

 lish country-town. Though so well wooded the forests of its base are 

 far from rich in species of plants. 



February 4th. — At 6^ a. m. having provided chairs slung on four 

 men's shoulders, in which I put my papers and boxes, we commenced 

 the ascent ; at first through woods of the common trees, with large 

 clumps of Bamboos, over slaty rocks of gneiss, much inclined and slop- 

 ing away from the mountain. The view from a ridge 500 feet high 

 was superb, of the village, and its white domes half buried in the forest 

 below, and of the latter, continued for many miles to the northward. 

 Descending to a valley some Ferns were met with, and a more luxuriant 

 vegetation, especially of Urticece. Wild Bananas formed a beautiful, 

 and to me novel feature in the woods ; these I took for granted 

 were planted, but I have since heard that the plant is wild in the Raj- 

 mahal hills, N. E. of this (and of which these mountains are a con- 

 tinuation) and hence no doubt here also. A white-flowered Rubiaceous 

 plant (Hamiltonia suaveolens) was everywhere abundant, and very 

 handsome, with many Acanthacece and Leguminosce, but few Crypto- 

 gamice. The mounds raised by the white-ant appear to me not an 

 independent structure, but the debris of clumps of Bamboos, or of 

 the trunks of large trees which these insects have destroyed. As they 

 work up a tree from the ground, they coat the bark with particles of 

 silicious soil, glued together, carrying up this artificial sheath or covered 

 way as they ascend. A clump of Bamboo is thus speedily killed, the 

 culms fall away, leaving the mass of stumps coated with sand, which the 

 action of the weather soon fashions into a cone of earthy matter. 



