90 Notes on the Flora of Lucknow. [No. 2 



to supply a want, I my self have much felt, aud at the same time avoid 

 eon veviug a wrong impression of the extent of the Flora of Luckuow, 

 I shall exclude from the catalogue all cultivated and introduced 

 plants, and shall detail them at length in the following notes on the 

 peculiarities of its climate and cultivation. Lucknow is situated 

 in Lat. 27° E. Long. 81° on the right and south bank of the 

 Goomtee, a considerable stream which rises in the marshy country 

 about Khyraghur, near the base of the Nipal Himalaya. The valley 

 of the Goomtee varies at Lucknow from one to four or five miles in 

 breadth, and for the most part consists of a richly cultivated 

 alluvial soil, interspersed with patches of sand, which are often 

 blown into hillocks by the prevailing winds. The valley is bounded 

 on both sides by banks of kunkur (nodules of limestone) rising 

 about forty or fifty feet above the level of the river, which in some 

 parts of its course, runs at their base. These banks are intersected 

 by ravines of considerable extent running at right angles to the 

 course of the river ; they serve during the rains to drain the adjacent 

 country. The sandy patches extend across Oude to the banks of 

 the Ganges at Cawnpore, and are there connected with the sandy 

 valley of that river. 



The climate of Lucknow presents, with well marked features, the 

 three seasons of Northern India, namely the cold season, from the 

 middle of October to the end of March, the hot dry season, from 

 the beginning of April to the middle or end of June, and the rainy 

 season, extending over the months of July, August and September, 

 passing into the cold weather during the first fortnight of October. 

 The distinctive features of these seasons at Lucknow are, in the 

 cold weather, considerable dryness, greatly diminished power of the 

 sun's rays, though favoured by a cloudless sky, great nocturnal 

 radiation, and consequently an extended daily thermometric range. 

 My records of meteorological observations were destroyed during 

 the mutinies of 1857, so that I am unable to give a thermometric 

 table, but the minimum temperature recorded during 1856 was 

 37° Fahr. In the hot weather, the existence of steady hot 

 westerly winds, excessive dryness, returning power of the sun's rays, 

 and decrease of thermometric range give an almost African cha- 

 racter to the climate. On the accession of the rains, the climate is 



