74 BOTANICAL TOUR IN THE LAKHIMPUR DISTRICT, ASSAM. 
given, is subtropical, the average annual temperature being al>out 
65° Fahrenheit. The rainfall is heavy (about 115 inches annually) 
and the wet season is of long duration, lasting from April to October. 
North-easterly winds are said to prevail throughout the greater part 
of the year. 
The chief crop cultivated by the Natives is rice. The minor crops 
are identical with those grown in Bengal, such as Indian corn, millets, 
pulses, mustard, pumpkins, gourds, brinjals, potatoes and many 
others. Tomatoes seem to trive most admirably. 
Near a few villages I saw plots of castor oil plants (Rtctnus com- 
munis) on which are reared the eri Silkworms. I was informed 
that since cloth could be obtained so cheaply in the bazaars the people 
bad almost abandoned the practice of sericulture, and evidence is not 
wanting to show that in a few years the art will be lost to this people. 
In the following pages I append a list of plants found in the 
Lakhimpur District, arranged according to the systematic method 
for convenience. This list is based mainly on my own observations 
and thus is far from being complete, but I am able to include in it 
many species not brought into the preceding account and it- may 
serve the purpose of exhibiting, in a small degree, the affinities of 
the Flora. 
List or the principal plants forming the vegetation of 
LAKHIMPUR 
Ranunciilaeem 
Naravelta zeylanica^ Z>C.|common ; Ranunculus sceleratus^ £. 
and Ranunculus pensylvanicus^ £,, both tall herbs abounding in 
swanrps and on river banks. 
Coptis TeelUt Wall. — This plant is indigenous in the Mishmi mount- 
ains and is included in this list because its roots are brought by the 
hill people to Sadiya from where it is exported to Bengal end other 
parts of India where it is held in much esteem as a drug possessing 
tonic and febrifugal properties. The yellow colouring matter in the 
roots is quickly soluble in water, but the quantity imported must be 
far too limited to allow of any part to be used as a dye, besides the 
expensive nature of the product would debar its utilization for such 
a purpose. So far as I can ascertain the plant has never been 
suojected to experimental culture. 
Aconiium Napellus, L . — The roots of this and perhaps of other 
species are used by the hill tribes to make their deadly arrow poison. 
The plant is said to grow only on the interior highlands inhabited by 
the Tibetans who take the precaution of dipping the roots in boiling 
