CLIMATE AND VEGETATION OF THE HIMALAYAS. 
15 
^/'/V'/WWWV'/' 
thaceae and Scropliularinese, Exacum, Oldenlandia, Polygona, and Oxalis. Clerodendron was common ; 
and the erect Bamboo almost the only tree. There were neither Palms nor Bassia, and few Fici. The 
increasing dampness as the party neared the hills, was shown by the presence of three additional Ferns, 
and the growth of Pann or Betel Pepper, which now, for the first time, the Doctor saw in cultivation. 
Dr. Hooker describes the Terai as a low, swampy, malarious belt, which skirts the base of the 
Sub-Himalaya, from the Sutlege to Brahmakund, in Upper Assam. Every feature, botanical, geolo¬ 
gical, and zoological, is at once new, on entering this district, and foreign to the plains of India. The 
change is sudden and immediate—sea and shore hardly more conspicuously different; nor, from the 
edge of the Terai, to the limit of the perpetual snow, is any botanical region more strictly defined, and 
clearly marked than this. Leaving Silligoree, an abrupt descent leads to the Mahanuddy river, be¬ 
yond which the Terai as abruptly commences. The road winds through a thick brushwood choked 
with long grasses, (Saccharum, &c.), and Cyperacese. The trees are few, and chiefly Dalbergia Sissoo, 
and a scarlet-fruited Sterculia. But few spring plants were in flower ; but among them were a sweet- 
scented Crinum, Asphodel, and a beautiful small Curcuma, in great profusion. Leaves of terrestrial 
Orchidese appeared with Ferns (Lomarise), Triumfetta, Sidee, and similar weeds of hot damp regions. 
The banks of numerous small streams were richly clothed with brushwood and climbers, such as Con¬ 
volvuli, Hirsea, Leea, Yitis, Menispermum, Cucurbitaceae and Bignoniacese. Strange to say, this highly 
pestiferous district is inhabited by a race more robust than the Europeans in India—the Mechis, a mild, 
inoffensive, and industrious people. 
About six miles' distant from this, the road opens out upon a short flat, from which the Himalaya 
Mountains rise abruptly, clothed with forest to the base; the little Bungalow of Punkabarrie, our tra¬ 
veller’s destination, nestled in the woods crowning a lateral knoll, above which, far as the eye could 
reach, rose range upon range of wooded mountain. 
The ascent to Punkabarrie from this steppe was sudden and steep, and marked by a complete 
change in the soil and vegetation. A giant forest now replaced the stunted and bushy timber of the 
Terai Proper. The Carey a and Shorea were the prevailing trees, with Cedrela, and the superb Gor- 
donia Wallichii. Smaller timber and shrubs are innumerable; a succulent character pervades the 
bushes and herbs, occasioned by the prevalence of Urticese. Large Bamboos crest the hills. Shade 
is abundant, for the torrents cut a straight, deep, and steep course down the hill flanks. The 
gullies these traverse are choked with vegetation, and bridged by fallen trees, whose trunks are 
richly clothed with Dendrobium Pierardi, and other epiphytal Orchidese, with pendulous Lycopodia, 
and many Ferns, vEschynanthus, Hoya, Saccolabium, Scitaminese, and such types of the hottest and 
dampest climates on the face of the globe. Wrightia mollisima formed a small tree, now nearly leafless, 
with its curious hanging pods. The Saul is indeed a noble tree; Dr. Hooker saw no individuals at Paras- 
Nath to compare with these. Mosses were far from frequent, and the Lichens principally corticolous 
species. A few Agarici were the prevalent Fungi. Ferns, too, are more season-plants than the Doctor 
had expected; the majority showing their crozier-like heads. The white or lilac blossoms of the 
Convolvulus-like Thunbergia were the predominant feature of shrubby vegetation. 
From Punkabarrie, a very steep and richly-wooded ascent of 3000 feet begins, where the Gordonia 
Wallichii, from its social habit, size, straightness of timber, and colour of its bark, was still the most 
attractive tree. 
At the elevation of 1000 feet above Punkabarrie, the vegetation is extraordinarily rich. Shorea, 
{Sal), Gordonia Wallichii bursting into blossom, and Cedrela, Careya, and some others, are still the 
prevailing gigantic timber trees, and these scaled by climbing Leguminosae, as Bauhinias, and Robinias 
spanning the forest with great cables joining tree to tree, whose trunks are also clothed with parasitical 
Orcliideae, and the still more beautiful Pothos, Peppers, Gnetum, Yitis, Convolvulus, and Bignoniae. 
Of the most conspicuous smaller trees, the wild Banana is the most abundant; next comes a Pandanus ? 
with a straight stem and a tuft of leaves, each eight or ten feet long, waving on all sides, but without 
flower or fruit. Araliaceae, with smooth or armed slender trunks, and Mappa-like Euphorbiaceae, 
spread their petioles horizontally forth, each terminated with an ample leaf some feet in diameter. 
Bamboo abounds everywhere: its dense tufts of culms, 100 feet and upwards high, are as thick as a 
man’s thigh at the base. Grewia, Bradleia, Aquilaria, Mimosa and Acacia, Garcinia, shrubby Com¬ 
posite and Cinchonaceae are very frequent; also Vitis, Cissus, and Leea, of several species, 
Hiraea, Gordonia, Eurya, Triumfetta, Hibiscus, Abutilon, Sida, Capparis, Kydia, Helicteres, Hovenia, 
Paliurus, Zizyphus, Colubrina, Casearia, Crotalaria, Tephrosia, Guilandina, Uvaria, Desmodia, Flemingia, 
Mucuna, Dalbergia, Cassia and Bauhinia; Grislea, Lagerstrcemia, Sizygium, Momordica, Bryonia, 
Panax, Aralia, Hedera? Loranthus, Nauclea, Hymenodyction, Mussaenda, Randia, Wendlandia, 
Oldenlandia, Ophiorhiza and others; Hedyotis, Hamiltonia, Pavetta, Coffea, Psychotria, Spermacoce, 
