442 
VEGETABLE PRODUCTIONS OF THE PUNJAB AND KASHMIR. 
emperors enacted a regulation that a grove of 
chunars and poplars should adorn every vil- 
lage; and accordingly, throughout the length 
and breadth of the valley this arrangement is 
to be observed. A heavy penalty protects 
them from destruction ; but in Kashmir, as in 
all other countries, arbitrary power places 
itself above the law, and the Sikhs, during 
their period of unlimited power, destroyed 
many of these magnificent trees, whose wood 
is much admired for its tenacious grain. The 
poplar and the lime-tree attain a great height, 
the wild chestnut far surpasses in size the 
European variety. Baron Hugel saw some 
which, from the ground to the first spread of 
the branches, measured a hundred feet, while 
the uppermost foliage would overtop the tallest 
pine. Maples, willows, and wild thorns are 
common. The birch and alder flourish on the 
mountain sides, where a weight of perpetual 
snow continually rests upon them, so that, 
while their length is usually about thirty 
feet, they seldom rise more than five feet above 
the earth, being so bent down by the super- 
incumbent mass. The inner bark of the birch, 
once used by the natives as a material to write 
upon, is now used for packing fruits, and to 
wind round the long and serpentine tube of 
the hooka. 
Of ornamental trees and plants an abundant 
variety exists. The sanjit, a species of Ele- 
agnus, is beautiful in appearance, with flowers 
of exquisite fragrance, and a fruit from which 
liquor not inferior to the juice of the grape is 
extracted. On the mountains, at an elevation 
■ of eleven thousand feet above the sea, we find 
the juniper and the rhododendron. There is 
one species of Daphne and several of berberry, 
one of which is covered with clusters of blue 
berries of considerable size and sweet taste. 
To those who have seen the poetical praises 
lavished on Kashmir, with its green hills and 
bright lakes, its fairy vales and countless 
flowers, its gardens, groves, and floating 
islands, its balmy air and blue sky, its oval 
frame of hills, whose snowy summits never 
gave back the echo of a human voice, with 
its rocks and its rivers, its torrents, and the 
sublimity of its scenery, it may appear strange 
that the traveller should not oftener select it 
to be the scene of his wanderings. But so it 
is. Thousands of spots on this earth's sur- 
face lie untrodden save by the feet of their 
own rude dwellers, from year to year, and, 
like the flower of the desert, waste their 
beauty, either on the empty solitude, or the 
unadmiring eye of the savage. Other spots, 
far less attractive, are visited by wanderers 
from all parts of the v/orld, trampled by the 
heels of uncounted travellers, and described 
until the ear is weary of their names. Kashmir 
is -among tlie neglected beauties of the earth. 
One reason for this may perhaps be the 
fortification of mountains, lofty, rugged, and 
snow-clad as they are, which hem it in on all 
sides, and deny the sight of its beauty to all 
save the adventurous and the energetic. 
The rose, wild and cultivated, flowers in 
vast profusion here, and frequently the breeze 
is literally loaded with its scent, Syringa, 
jasmine, ivy, and a species of Smilax also grow. 
Various kinds of Chrysanthema and Primulae 
flourish wild, with the lily, the narcissus, the 
crocus, the iris, and countless flowers of 
annual bloom. Ferns are scarce, but funguses 
abundant. The edible kinds are gathered in 
large quantities for home consumption and for 
trade. The fruits of Kashmir are excellent 
and numerous. Those which attain most per- 
fection are the apple, the pear, the peach, the 
apricot, the plum, the almond, the pomegra- 
nate, the mulberry, the walnut, the hazel-nut, 
the pistachio, and the melon. Oranges and 
lemons have on several occasions been intro- 
duced, but never with success, since the cold 
of winter has invariably destroyed them. 
These fruits grow both wild and cultivated. 
But there is another species which affords 
almost exclusive subsistence to twenty thou- 
sand persons, which requires no attention 
from man. This is the singhara {Traya M- 
spinosa) or water-nut. It grows in the great 
Wulur lake in such immense profusion, that 
according to several writers, sixty thousand 
tons of the seeds are raised every year. The 
nuts are eaten either raw, boiled, roasted, or 
ground into flour and made into gruel. 
Another article of food is the Nymphcea 
Lotus, or Egyptian water-lily, which, with its 
light foliage and large poppy-like rose-co- 
loured flowers, spreads itself over the city 
lake, and presents a spectacle of singular 
beauty. Its flowers and leaves are never 
covered by water. The beans it bears are 
eaten unripe, and the stalks, boiled, are con- 
sidered a palatable and useful food. 
Rice, however, is the principal article of 
cultivation, as well as the staple food of the 
inhabitants of the valley. Great skill is em- 
ployed in its culture, and this is generally 
rewarded with a full measure of success, in 
consequence of the genial climate, the rich 
soil, and the abundance of water. Thirty or 
forty-fold is the common return, but it is not 
unusually as high as fifty or sixty. Wheat, 
barley, millet, and Indian corn are also raised, 
with large quantities of gram, buck-wheat, 
and amaranth ( Gelosia cristata). But per- 
haps the feature most worthy of attention in 
the agricultural economy of Kashmir, is the 
practice of producing crops of cucumbers and 
melons, in floating gardens on the lakes. 
Thornton supplies an excellent description of 
the method pursued : — 
