Though the botany of Paras-nath proved interesting,
its elevation was not accompanied by such a change
from the flora of its base as I had expected.
This is no doubt due to its dry climate and sterile
soil; characters which it shares with the extensive
elevated area of which it forms a part, and upon which
I could not detect above 300 species of plants during
my journey. Yet, that the atmosphere at the summit
is more damp as well as cooler than at the base, is
proved as well by the observations as by the vegetation;*
[Of plants eminently typical of a moister atmosphere,
I may mention the genera Bolbophyllum, Begonia,
Aeginetia, Disporum, Roxburghia, Panax, Eugenia, Myrsine,
Shorea, Millettia, ferns, mosses, and foliaceous
lichens; which appeared in strange association with
such dry-climate genera as Kalanchoe, Pterospermum,
and the dwarf-palm, Phoenix. Add to this list
the Berberis asiatica, Clematis nutans, Thalictrum
glyphocarpum, 27 grasses, Cardamine,etc.,
and the mountain top presents a mixture of the plants
of a damp hot, a dry hot, and of a temperate climate,
in fairly balanced proportions. The prime elements
of a tropical flora were however wholly wanting on
Paras-nath, where are neither Peppers, Pothos,
Arum, tall or climbing palms, tree-ferns, Guttiferae,
vines, or laurels.] and in some respects, as the increased
proportion of ferns, additional epiphytal orchideous
plants, Begonias, and other species showed,
its top supported a more tropical flora than its base.
CHAPTER II.
Doomree — Vegetation of table-land — Lieutenant Beadle — Birds —
Hot springs of Soorujkoond — Plants near them — Shells in them —
Cholera-tree — Olibanum — Palms, form of — Dunwah Pass — Trees,
native and planted — Wild peacock — Poppy fields — Geography and
geology of Behar and Central India — Toddy-palm — Ground,
temperature of — Barroon — Temperature of plants — Lizard — Cross
the Soane — Sand, ripple marks on — Kymore hills — Ground,
temperature of — Limestone — Rotas fort and palace — Nitrate of
lime — Change of climate — Lime stalagmites, enclosing leaves —
Fall of Soane — Spiders, etc. — Scenery and natural history of
upper Soane valley — Hardwickia binata — Bhel fruit —
Dust-storm — Alligator — Catechu — Cochlospermum —
Leaf-bellows — Scorpions — Tortoises — Florican — Limestone
spheres — Coles — Tiger-hunt — Robbery.
In the evening we returned to our tamarind tree, and
the next morning regained the trunk road, following
it to the dawk bungalow of Doomree. On the way
I found the Caesalpinia paniculuta, a magnificent
climber, festooning the trues with its dark glossy
foliage and gorgeous racemes of orange blossoms.
Receding from the mountain, the country again became
barren: at Doomree the hills were of crystalline
rocks, chiefly quartz and gneiss; no palms or large
trees of any kind appeared. The spear-grass abounded,
and a detestable nuisance it was, its long awns and
husked seed working through trowsers and stockings.
