xlviii 
INTRODUCTION 
also a Polygonum , with elegant panicles of white honey-scented 
flowers. 
Nagkanda Bungalow, elevated 9,300 feet above the level of the 
sea, is situated on a depression of the main range, where it has 
a direction from west to east. The ridge to the west, towards 
Mattiana, is elevated little more than 10,000 feet, while to the 
east rises the peak of Hattu to a height of 10,456 feet. 
The top of Hattu is only about 1,500 feet above the Nagkanda 
Bungalow, and the distance is nearly five miles. The first mile is 
bare of wood on the ridge, though the forest on both sides rises 
within a few feet of the crest, which is bordered by brushwood. 
As soon as the ascent commences the ridge becomes covered with 
forest, at first principally pine, spruce, and silver fir ( Picea ) being 
the principal species. Yew is also very common, forming a fine 
tall tree, and the few non-coniferous trees are chiefly the alpine 
oak,, sycamore, and cherry. 
On the top of Hattu the grassy slopes are covered with a 
luxuriant herbage of Potentillce, Labiatce, Gentianacece, Epilobium, 
Polygonum and Anemone, while a few stunted bushes of Quercus 
semecarpifolia, a simple-leaved Pyrus, and a willow are the only 
shrubby vegetation. The forest, however, rises close to the base 
of the cliffs on the western face, and contains all *the species 
common on the ascent of the mountain, the vegetation of the 
summit being in no respect peculiar, not even in early spring 
exhibiting any truly alpine plant. The mountain bamboo, a 
graceful small species of Arundinaria [A. spathiflora], which is 
extremely abundant in the woods of the upper temperate and 
subalpine zones, adorns the rocky hollows close to the summit. 
In looking back from the summit of Hattu towards Simla and 
the plains it may be observed that the country is well wooded, 
though when viewed from Simla or the heights of Mahasu the 
same mountains had appeared almost bare. This diversity in the 
aspect of the country, according to the direction from which it is 
seen, is due to the ridges being well wooded on one face and bare 
of trees on the other. 
The shrubby and herbaceous vegetation of Hattu is exceedingly 
luxuriant. The more open glades of the forest are filled with an 
undergrowth of tall balsams, annual-stemmed Acanthacece, Dip- 
sacus, Compositce, among which the beautiful Calimeris [probably 
Erigeron multiradiatus ] is very abundant, while in the drier pine- 
forest a graceful little bamboo occurs, often to the exclusion of 
every other plant. It grows in dense tufts, eight or ten or even 
twelve feet high, the diameter of the stem not exceeding a quarter 
of an inch. . The currant of the Mahasu ridge is also common, 
