elevation, and flowers abundantly; the fruit making the
nearest approach to maturity (according to the elevation)
between July and October. At Dorjiling it follows the
English seasons, flowering in March and fruiting in
September, when the scarce reddened and still hard
fruit falls from the tree.
I t is curious that throughout this temperate region,
there is hardly an eatable fruit except the native walnut,
and some brambles, of which the “ yellow ” and
“ ground ” raspberries are the best, some insipid figs,
and a very austere crab-apple. The European apple
will scarcely ripen, and the pear not at all. Currants
and gooseberries show no disposition to thrive, and
strawberries are the only fruits that really ripen, which
they do in the greatest abundance. Vines, figs, pomegranates,
plums, apricots, &c., will not succeed even as
trees. European vegetables again grow, and thrive
remarkably well throughout the summer of Dorjiling,
and the produce is very fair, sweet and good, but
inferior in flavour to the English.
Of tropical fruits cultivated below 4000 feet, oranges
and indifferent bananas alone are frequent, with lemons
of various kinds. The season for these is, however,
very short; oranges abound in winter, and are excellent,
but neither so large nor free from white pulp as those
of the Khasia hills, the West Indies, or the west coast
of Africa. Mangos are brought from the plains, for
though wild in Sikkim, the cultivated kinds do not
thrive; I have seen the pine-apple plant, but I never
met with good fruit on it.
A singular and almost total absence of the direct
rays of the sun during the ripening season, is the
cause of this dearth of fruit. Both the farmer and
orchard gardener in England know full well the value
of a bright sky as well as of a warm autumnal atmosphere.
Without this corn does not ripen, and fruit-
trees are blighted. The winter of the plains of India
being more analogous in its distribution of moisture
and heat to a European summer, such fruits as the
peach,vine, and even plum, fig, strawberry, &c., maybe
brought to bear well in March, April, and May, if they
are only carefully tended through the previous hot and
damp season, which is, in respect to the functions of
flowering and fruiting, their winter.
Hence it appears that, though some English fruits
will turn the winter solstice of Bengal (November to
May) into summer, and then flower and fruit, neither
these nor others will thrive in the summer of 7000 feet
on the Sikkim Himalaya, (though its temperature so
nearly approaches that of England,) on account of its
rain and fogs. Further, they are often exposed to a
winter’s cold equal to the average of that of London,
the snow lying for a week on the ground, and the
thermometer descending to 25°. I t is true that in no
case is the extreme of cold so great here as in England,
but it is sufficient to check vegetation, and to prevent
fruit-trees from flowering till they are fruiting at the
level of the sea. There is in this respect a great difference
between the climate of the central and eastern and
western Himalaya, at equal elevations. In the western
(Simla, &c.) the winters are colder than in Sikkim—
the summers warmer and less humid. The rainy