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With regard to those that are connected with meteorological conditions, 
such as cholera, we can almost trace the advance of cholera from one part of 
India — namely, from Lower Bengal upwards, according to the advance of 
the season — year by year, almost with unerring certainty. The cholera, 
beginning in Lower Bengal, especially in Calcutta, about the month of 
February, advances steadily upwards along the banks of the Ganges to 
Burhampoor, Dinapore, Benares, Cawnpore, Meerut, and so on to Peshawur, 
reaching the latter place about the latter part of autumn. It then frequently 
advances north and west, even in the winter season. But there is another 
respect in which the meteorological condition of India has a very important 
bearing, and that is with regard to the question of vegetation. We know 
that according to the peculiarities, climatic and otherwise, of particular 
localities, the vegetation varies, inasmuch as the influence of the climate of 
India upon vegetation, particularly upon plants, roots, bulbs, and other 
things imported from England, is very remarkably seen. When we see this, 
I think we must make allowance for the influence exerted by the climate of 
India on the health of Europeans who have gone to reside in that country. 
It is a very common saying in England, and especially amongst those whose 
personal knowledge of the conditions to which they refer is limited, that 
the mortality amongst our people is, in the majority of cases, attributable to 
faults on the part of the people themselves ; it is due, they say, to too much 
eating or too much drinking. I am always glad when an opportunity occurs, 
such as the present, to try and show that such views are not correct. I have 
seen as much of European, — that is, British, — life in India as most people, 
and although, of course, there is a good deal of mortality and sickness due to 
excesses there, just as there is here in England, still, the great difference in 
the rates of sickness and mortality there over the rates prevailing in Britain 
is to be accounted for by something else than mere excess ; and that some- 
thing else is, I believe, to be found in those grave conditions, climatic and 
local, which we have not the means in the instruments at our disposal of 
identifying, and which affect vegetation in the way I have alluded to. 
(Hear, hear.) In order to make my meaning more clear, I may say that 
flowering plants - those, for instance, that have been introduced into India 
from England — completely change their characteristics ; that is to say, many 
of them so completely deteriorate in a year, or a couple of years, as not to 
be recognisable. Plants that are exceedingly productive in England in 
regard to seed, fail in that respect in India. Flowers and plants flowering 
or budding in spring do not bud or flower very often in some parts of India 
until the autumn, while in other parts they flower twice a year. Some trees, 
as, for instance, the ornamental trees that have been introduced from 
England, completely change their appearance and become unrecognisable ; 
and not only does this apply to trees taken from England, but also to those 
that have been introduced from Australia. I remember a gentleman from 
Australia going about with some of the officers in one part of India, and 
asking what a particular tree was. “ Bless my heart,” he said, “ surely you 
