1837.] 



or Pulneij Mountains. 



283 



tain a number of species amounting to from 3\ to 4 fifths of the 

 whole peninsular flora, so far as we are yet acquainted with it, and to 

 present a vast number of species peculiar to themselves. Among the 

 European forms observed were two species of Ranunculus ; two of 

 Anemone ; three of Clematis ; two of Berberis ; a new Parnassia ; two of 

 Drosera (sun dew); oneStellaria, and one Cerastium (chick-weed); a rose, 

 very abundant ; three or four kinds of rasps and brambles ; one Poten- 

 tilla ; one Circsea (enchanters night shade) ; a tree allied to the Bilberry 

 (Thibaudia) ; one Anagallis ; two of Lysimachia, both allied to British 

 species; the common dock, very abundant about the villages; and three 

 kinds of rushes (Juncus), one very nearly allied to the common British 

 rush. (Juncus effusus.) Among the truly tropical forms, a species of 

 Magnolia, the first I believe thatha s been discovered in the peninsula, is 

 the most interesting ; the Rhododendron nobilis very abundant ; a very 

 large and handsome Ilex (holly), but without the thorny leaves of the 

 European plant; a species of Gordonia, a tree resembling in its flowers 

 the Camelia andtea plant ; a very remarkable species of fig, with a 

 climbing stem, bearing fruit of the size of large oranges, in clusters along 

 the stems: besides many other interesting trees which I fear it would be 

 tedious to mention. Four species of palms are met with on the higher 

 regions, namely the sago palm (caryota urens), a w r ild areca palm, the 

 Bentinckia condupana, and an alpine species of date. The grasses are 

 very numerous, but the predominant tribe (Andropogineee) are not those 

 best suited for pasturage, jjeing generally of a coarse nature and highly 

 aromatic quality. Ferns, mosses, and lichens, abound : among which, 

 the most conspicuous is a branching variety of the Tree-fern, (Also- 

 phila) very common in thick jungles on moist banks of streams. 



My residence was so short, and at such an unfavourable season of 

 the year, that I am unable to speak from personal observation of their 

 climate. The mean of 60 observations of the thermometer suspended 

 in a house gives 63° Fahrenheit, as the mean temperature during 20 

 days at an elevation of 5,450 feet. From a register of this kind no very- 

 satisfactory conclusions can be drawn. Had the thermometer been 

 suspended under a shade in the open air, the results, so far as they went, 

 would have been more satisfactory, but unfortunately the plan was not 

 adopted. The very unsettled state of the weather, which confined me 

 to the house nearly ten out of the twenty days I was there, would how- 

 ever have rendered such a register of little use, from the limited period 

 of observation. Captain Ward, whose longer residence on them gave 

 him a better opportunity of observing the thermometer, does not once 

 mention it in the course of his memoir. 



The population of this extensive tract of alpine country appears, from 

 a statement attached to the cutcherry copy of Captain Ward's memoir, 

 to be 3,299. If that record is correct, there must have been a very- 

 rapid decline since that time : for, according to one furnished on my ap- 

 plication, by the collector, and made up in 1836, it appears it is now 



