PHILOSOPHY OF FLORICULTURE. 
205 
cram him with beef-steaks ; and yet this is exactly the kind of 
treatment which the out-of-season waterers give to their plants. 
An instance of the existence of a district, perfectly temperate in 
its climate and vegetation, though situated near the centre of the 
northern half of the torrid zone, and surrounded by districts of 
perfectly tropical character, some of them nearly as much elevated 
above the level of the sea as itself, will show upon what circum¬ 
stances tropical character depends, and consequently how these can 
be best approximated in temperate latitudes. The Neelgherry 
hills or mountains in southern India afford a very remarkable 
example of this kind. They stretch from east to west across the 
peninsula in about 11° north latitude. Their eastern extremity 
abuts on the low plain toward the Bay of Bengal; and at their 
western extremity there is a break in the w r estern mountains of 
about sixteen miles in width, and cleft down almost to the level of 
the sea. All the rest of southern India has mountain elevations 
extending northward and southward, and confining the rains in all 
cases to not more than the two seasonal monsoons, and, generally 
speaking, only to one of them—some seasons to none in certain 
districts. The consequence is, that the vegetation of all these, the 
principal parts of southern India, is highly seasonal in its charac¬ 
ter—the trees are entwined with creepers, and festooned with 
Orchidaceae, displaying the most exquisite beauty when they are 
in flower ; and the summit-levels are covered with close jungles 
of bamboos and other thorny and fast-growing plants, which are 
more impenetrable than any forest, and retain the rain that falls, 
in putrid and pestilent swamps. 
But, on the Neelgherry hills, unless upon the very lower slopes, 
there is scarcely one vegetable of tropical character : no Orchida¬ 
ceae, no jungles, no swamps, and none of the dangerous and offen¬ 
sive animals which inhabit the naturally foul places of the earth. 
There are frequent showers all the year round; and the result is, 
that the air is very temperate, and varies little one season with 
another. The vegetation corresponds, and is European in its 
general character. Roses, honeysuckles, jessamines, myrtles, 
balsams, geraniums, marigolds, and daisies, are among the pre¬ 
vailing wdld flowers ; while the chief native fruits are hill-goose¬ 
berries, raspberries, and strawberries. In place of jungle there are 
copses of gooseberry, rose, and other small shrubs, together with 
large fern brakes, such as one meets with on an English common. 
