By John Lindley, Esq. 



41 



while there is no instance of a country both hot and damp in which 

 they do not swarm. This can readily be shewn. 



There is perhaps no part of the world in which they more 

 abound than India; in the Malayan Archipelago, the climate of 

 which is intensely hot, the mean temperature being between 77° 

 and 78°, and damp to saturation, they exist in enormous quantities. 

 In Nipal, they are only found upon the sides of the lower moun- 

 tains, where they vegetate amongst clouds and constant showers ; 

 while on the continent of India they are almost unknown, their place 

 being occupied by parasitical Loranthi. The traveller finds himself 

 in the morning on the dry plains of Hindustan, where the mean 

 temperature is 80°, and where all the trees are destitute of Orchi- 

 dese, and at noon he is at the foot of the first range of Nipalese 

 hills, where every tree teems with that class of plants. There are, 

 however, places on the continent of India, where they are not less 

 numerous than in Nipal ; at the estuaries of the Ganges, the Bur- 

 hampooter, (Burmapootra) the Irawaddi, and the rivers of Mar- 

 taban, they exist in vast quantities : but all these stations are ex- 

 cessively damp. In the Botanic Garden, Calcutta, they grow most 

 vigorously during the rainy seasons, but in the fiercely hot season 

 that begins in March, and lasts till the 10th of June, they perish, 

 notwithstanding all the care they receive. 



The humidity of the Isle of France and Madagascar is well known, 

 and the mean temperature of the former has been computed at 80° 

 4' ; here vast quantities abound. 



In Africa they are rare, its sandy deserts and parched atmosphere 

 are unfavourable to their growth, notwithstanding the high tem- 

 perature of that torrid region. They are, however, found at Sierra 

 Leone in abundance, where the mean temperature is 70° 7', but 

 modified by vapours, the existence of which is unfortunately but 

 too well ascertained. At the Cape of Good Hope they are wholly 

 unknown, and although the temperature of the northern parts of 



