trunk rising out of the naked rocks, but its site is
generally inaccessible; while near it grows the Saxi-
fraga ciliaris of our English gardens, a common plant
in the north-west Himalaya, but extremely scarce in
Sikkim and the Khasia mountains.
I t is extremely difficult to give within the limits of
this narrative any idea of the Khasia flora, which is, in
extent and number of fine plants, the richest in India,
and probably in all Asia. We collected upwards of
2000 flowering plants within ten miles of the station of
Churra, besides 150 ferns, and a profusion of mosses,
lichens, and fungi. This extraordinary exuberance of
species is not so much attributable to the elevation,
for the whole Sikkim Himalaya (three times more
elevated) does not contain 500 more flowering plants,
and far fewer ferns, &c.; but to the variety of exposures;
namely, 1. the Jheels, 2. the tropical jungles,
both in deep, hot, and wet valleys, and on drier slopes;
3. the rocks; 4. the bleak table-lands and stony soils;
5. the moorlike uplands, naked and exposed, where
many species and genera appear at 5000 to 6000 feet,
which are not found on the outer ranges of Sikkim
under 10,000. In fact, strange as it may appear, owing
to this last cause, the temperate flora descends fully
4000 feet lower in the latitude of Khasia than in that
of Sikkim, though the former is two degrees nearer
the equator.
Orchidese are, perhaps, the largest natural order in
the Khasia, where fully 250 kinds grow, chiefly on
trees and rocks, but many are terrestrial, inhabiting
damp woods and grassy slopes. I doubt whether in
any other part of the globe the species of orchids
outnumber those of any other natural order, or form
so large a proportion of the flora. Balsams are next
in relative abundance (about twenty-five), both tropical
and temperate kinds, of great beauty and variety in
colour, form, and size of blossom. Palms amount to
twenty, of which the Chamcerops and Arenga are the
only genera not found in Sikkim. Of bamboos there
are fifteen, and of other grasses 150, which is an
immense proportion, considering that the Indian flora
(including those of Ceylon, Kashmir, and all the
Himalaya), hardly contains 400.
No rhododendron grows at Churra, hut several
species occur a little further n o rth : there is hut one
pine besides the yew, and that is only found in the
drier interior regions. Singular to say, it is a Chinese
species not a native of the Himalaya, but very nearly
allied to the long-leaved pine, though more closely
resembling the Scotch fir than that tree does.
The climate of Khasia is remarkable for the excessive
rain-fall. Attention was first drawn to this by Mr.
Yule, who stated, that in the month of August, 1841,
264 inches fell, or twenty-two fe e t; and that during
five successive days, thirty inches fell in every twenty-
four h o u rs! Dr. Thomson and I also recorded thirty
inches in one day and night, and during the seven
months of our stay, upwards of 500 inches fell, so that
the total annual fall perhaps greatly exceeded 600 inches,
or fifty feet, which has been registered in succeeding
years! From April, 1849, to April, 1850, 502 inches
(forty-two feet) fell. This unparalleled amount is