1837.] 



Extra-Tropical Plants within the Tropics. 



43 



to the introduction of the herbaceous forms only, but may, by applying 

 the same principles to the arboreous vegetation of temperate climates, 

 extend it to the tropics, theveby supplying ourselves, not only with the 

 products of the farm and kitchen garden, but of the forest and orchard. 

 On these grounds I cannot refrain from soliciting — urgently entreating 

 — all those enjoying opportunities of making experiments, both in India 

 and Europe, to unite in their endeavours to confirm by repeated trials 

 the truth or fallacy of the principles I have deduced from the facts 

 and analogies above stated. 



IX. — Notes, chiefly Geological, of a Journey through the Northern Cir- 

 cars in the year 1835.— By P. M. Benza, Esq. m. d. 



Sono, prima d' ogni altro, da compararsi i varii, e slegatf fenomeni gia posti, e raecolti 

 dalla osservazione, e dall' esperienza, cosl ad uno ad uno, come tutti insieme ; per vedere 

 in che si convengano, o peravventura si differiscano. — Seina. Introd : alia Fisica Sped- 

 mentale. 



Masulipatam, Jan. 18, 1835. — We disembarked at this place from 

 Calcutta, and proceeded to the camp, pitched about a mile from tbe 

 place of debarkation. I felt distinctly that we were passing through 

 an unhealthy, marshy situation, the atmosphere having the characte- 

 ristic odour of such pestiferous places, arising from the putrefaction of 

 the lacustrine plants the salicornicB principally. 



As we traversed the plain, we could not but wonder at the many human 

 skulls scattered over it, having been, as we were told, dug up by jack- 

 als, and other animals from their untimely graves. They were those 

 of the unfortunate people, who fell victims to the mortiferous epidemy, 

 which, two years before, carried off a great many European soldiers, 

 and multitudes of the natives. 



Although the Right Honourable the Governor's camp w r as pitched 

 some distance from the unhealthiest part of the plain, yet, the mias- 

 matic effluvia, particularly at night, was powerfully felt. I never 

 recollect the odour so strong, except in the swampy plains of the 

 Acherusian lake (hodie Fanari), where, during the heat of the summer 

 months, the exhalations from that vast swamp corrupt the air to such a 

 degree, as to prove exceedingly baneful to the imprudent who ventures 

 to sleep, even one single night, within the influence of these pestiferous 

 exhalations. At Masulipatam, the two nights we slept there, the odour 

 was very strongly developed. 



The plain, round Masulipatam, is sandy, having a subtratum of clay. 

 In this sand are found many pieces of a concretionary calcarious sand- 

 stone, generally vpeaking mammillary, such as we see in alluvial depo- 



