NOTES FROM A JOURNEY TO NEPAL, 
7 * 
towards the north and the strata are much broken and confused, great 
masses of the white limestone forming irregular cliffs on both hill sides. 
The conspicuous large trees of this dense forest are Duahanga 
sonneratioideSf Terminalia tomentasd^ Shorea r&busta^ Anthocephalus 
Cadambdf Bombax malabartcumt a BauhAnia^ and another Leghminosa, 
with sissoo for the first part ©I the way; in the stream bedr At the 
deepest part of the gorge Pandanus f^rcatus grows, and Rhaphi- 
dophora glauca climbs up the tree tranks. On the hilt face towards 
Hettdunda plants of the large creeper Cdmhretum decandftm ^x^ very 
plentiful, just as they are where the Tista debouches on to the plains. 
Dalbergia volubilis was common in the forest, spiawlii^ over other 
shrubs .* a rambling Zanthdxylum^ Holmskioldiui a Vitis, Mimosa 
rubricaulis^ a Thunbergia, and two Menisperms are other climbers. 
Big ferns are plentiful, and SelaginellaSt yi\i\!c\i in D«jcember were 
drying up. A bamboo with long whip-like terminations to its shoots 
grows in the drier parts of the forest: and so also grow ib abundance 
Oroxylum indicum^ Hamiltonia SuaveolenSf and Antiddsmd dian^ 
drum. Mussdsnda Roxbur gkii \s also presehl: and where the rocks 
break through Kalanchoe spatkulata appeals. Every damp hollow 
is full of Sir ohil ant lies covered with flowers, With ■ Reinwardtia 
trigynUi and Yiith Elatostema rupestie. Every loyeh corner where 
travellers can rest for a night carries weeds associated with man, such 
as Girardinia heterophylla^ Urtiea parviflora^ AgeratuM ednysoides^ 
and Polygonum mite. As we reslch the upper part of the gorge Ruhus 
eiliptuuSf Colebrookia oppositifolia^ and Adhatoda Vasica appear. 
In the old days the road up this gorge wound along the stream 
bed. Father Marc says (from hearsay) that it crossed the stream 
thirty-five times, and in the rains was impassable. Kirkpatrick 
enumerates twenty-four crossings, and Hamilton mentioris twenty-two. 
Father Giuseppe (Asiatic Researches, ii., 1790, p. 307 translation 
by John Shore) writes of more than fifty crossings of streams on the 
road to Nepal half of which would be over this river. 
Now-a-days a well-laid cart road runs along the east bank from 
Hettaunda to Bhainsa Duhan, and there it crosses by a cantilever 
bridge on to the other bank, to climb gently out of the tropical forest 
belt to Bhimpedi. 
The valleys under Niakot : their cultivation and their weeds. 
As said, at Bhimpedi we enter the cultivation belt, but before leaving 
the tropical forest region it is necessary to say something about the 
vegetation below Niakot. The Nidkot valley is fenced off against the 
south wind by the line of mountains which is penetrated by the 
