96 
NOTES FROM A JOURNEY TO NEPAL. 
at 7,000 feet and above, that we are hardly justified in drawing deduc- 
tions. 
As far as we know at present, the temperate forest belt contains 
fewer western types than the cultivation belt, and this we must largely 
ascribe to our accidental knowledge of the unusually cold and deforested 
Lohdri-Nep^l Valley, and to the want of knowledge of anything but 
damp hill crests in the temperate forest belt. 
Summing up, then, we may say of the road into Nepal 
1. |*ts Sdl forests on the flat are not quite like those of the 
Sikkim Terai, nor as those of Kheri. 
2. The pine forests of the Chorea Ghdti are unrepresented in 
Sikkim, though a few of their plants are distinctly Eastern. 
3. The Sal forests of the Hettiunda mari are like the S 4 I forests 
of the lower Sikkim Himalayan slopes. 
4. The vegetation of the wet gorge of Bhdinsa Duhan is very 
like that of corresponding places in Sikkim. 
5. The vegetation of the cultivation belt is rather diverse from 
that of Sikkim. 
6 The vegetation of the wet hill tops is like that of corresponding 
places in Sikkim. 
The similarities noticed are the effect of the monsoon ; and of course 
one could not expect any barriers to dispersal along the chain other 
than climatic changes. The wet south-west wind streaming straight up 
the Bay of Bengal on to the Sikkim Himalaya brings so much rain 
thither as to drive certain plants out of those hills, chiefly out of the 
hills that it first strikes, and thereby it creates the diversity of the Sikkim 
Flora— a most worthy subject for study. Where this same wind in 
some similar degree strongly blows on to the hills that we are 
dealing with, their vegetation resembles that of the Sikkim 
Himalaya. 
The known endemic element in our region, as far as it came under 
my- observation, consists of Blumea ohovata dn the Chorea Ghati hills, 
of three species of Impatiens^ of Calamintha longicaulis and possibly 
of an Eriocaulon—^\2.i\X.^ not numerous enough in the present state of 
our knowledge to justify deductions. There are also some varieties 
which are endemic, amongj which may be included thosejof Inula 
Cappa and Senecio scandens^ mentioned earlier] (pp. 68 and 87). 
