1848.] Observations made on a Botanical Excursion. 407 



camel, which is its constant companion over thousands of leagues. In 

 the valley of the Ganges I am told that neither the animal nor plant 

 flourish east of the Soane, where I experienced a marked change in the 

 humidity of the atmosphere on my passage down the Ganges. It was 

 a circumstance I was interested in, having first met the camel at Tene- 

 riffe and the Cape Verd Islands, the westermost limit of its distribu- 

 tion ; imported thither, however, as it now is into Australia, where, 

 though there is no Acacia Arabica, 400 other species of that genus are 

 known. 



Mr. Felle's bungalow (whose garden smiled with roses in this wilder- 

 ness) is surrounded by a moat, fed by a spring ; it was full of aquatic 

 plants, Nymphcea, Damsonium, Villarica cristata, Aponogeton, three 

 species of Potamogeton, two of Naias, Chara and Zannichellia (the two 

 latter indifferently, and often together, used in the refinement of sugar). 

 In a large tank hard by, wholly fed by rain water, I observed only the 

 Villarica Indica, no Aponogeton, Nymphcea or Damasonium, nor did 

 these occur in any of the other tanks I examined, which were otherwise 

 well peopled with plants. This may not be owing to the quality of the 

 water so much as to its varying quantity in the tank. 



All around here, as at Roump, is a dead flat, except towards the 

 crest of the ghauts, which overhang the valley of the Soane, and there 

 the sandstone rock rises by steppes into low hills. During a ride to a 

 natural tank amongst these rocky elevations, I passed from the alluvi- 

 um to the sandstone steppes, and at once met with all the prevailing 

 plants of the granite, gneiss, limestone and hornstone rocks previously 

 examined, and which I have enumerated too often to require recapitu- 

 lation, a convincing proof that the mechanical properties and not the 

 chemical constitution of the rocks regulate the distribution of these 

 plants. 



Rujub-bund, (the name of the tank) is a small tarn, or more properly 

 the expanded bed of a stream, for art has aided nature in its forma- 

 tion : it is edged by rocks and cliffs fringed with the usual trees of 

 the neighbourhood ; it is a wild and pretty spot, not unlike some birch- 

 bordered pool in the mountains of Wales or Scotland, sequestered and 

 picturesque. 



Here again the Aponogeton and Villarica cristata grew, with several 

 Potamogetons, Chara, Zannichellia and a floating Utricularia. 



