a striking resemblance to Egypt, as well in its natural features, as in its climate; both are bounded on one side by a ridge of mountains, and on the other by a desert; and both fertilized by the overflowing of their respective rivers, without which, they would be as completely desert as the adjoining regions. The Thurr, or Desert of India, is not, however, utterly destitute of vegetation; for, though in the hot months, all verdure totally disappears, the sand-hills after the monsoon are partially covered with grass and jungle shrubs,including an unusually numerous list of plants for a desert tract; "and the whole of these, in their berries, leaves, or fruit," says Sir Alexander Burnes, "though the spontaneous productions of the soil, are bountifully adapted to the food of man; a fact evincing the wise fitting of the means to the end, in a portion of the globe, where the most scanty crops are gleaned with difficulty from a dusty soil." To the north-east of the Vindhya range, the alluvial plains of the great valley of the Ganges extend, ascending very gradually from the sea in the Bay of Bengal, to the foot of the Himalayah Mountains. In approaching the base of this range, a close jungle is everywhere found, which, with more or less denseness, extends up these mountains to five thousand feet above the sea, at which elevation tropical shrubs disappear; and from thence to nine thousand feet, the arborescent vegetation is exclusively that of temperate regions; chesnuts, hornbeams, birches, hollys, and oaks. In the same region we meet with abundance of fruit trees, such as apricots, peaches, cherries, pears, apples, and walnuts; besides rich grapes, currants, gooseberries, raspberries, strawberries, berberries, &c. The intervening valleys in the same region are, in some parts, absolutely covered with white and yellow jasmine, rose-trees, and gum cistus, and adorned with singularly beautiful groves of rhododendron, some bearing white, others delicate pink, and others splendid crimson blossoms, attaining the size of forest trees, even at the elevation of 10,000, or 12,000 feet above the sea; beyond which, the rhododendron appears in the guise of a shrub, but disappears at 14,000 feet. The polyanthus grows at 11,000 feet, and has been noticed springing up as fast as the snow melts; buttercups and dandelions have been found at 12,600 feet; and a campanula has been seen in flower at the height of 16,800 feet. The corn grown on these heights, consists chiefly of wheat and barley. The limit of the successful cultivation of wheat, is about 10,000 feet above the sea; of barley, about 13,000 feet; rye and buck wheat do not succeed beyond 11,500 feet. A fine greensward, admirably adapted for pasture, still occurs, but this ceases at 14,600 feet above the sea; after which, the mosses and lichens prevail. The Himalayah Mountains rise very suddenly from the low plains of India, but on the northern side they are flanked by the elevated table-land of Tibet. The different height of the snow-line on the northern and southern sides of this range, has been before mentioned, and also, that this variation has been attributed to the radiation or the reflection of the sun's rays, from the elevated plains of Tibet; the snow-line being thus raised to 16,000 feet on that side, whilst on the Indian side, it does not exceed 12,500 feet. The line of cultivation varies with the snow-line, and it is a remarkable fact, that precisely as the low plains of India are left behind, and the traveller enters the depths of the mountains, does he find this line more elevated. Thus, on the southern flanks of the Himalayah, cultivation nowhere extends above 6000 feet, but within the first passes, it rises to 7000, within the next, to 8000 feet, though in no part it exceeds from 9000 to 10,000 feet, until we arrive at the northern side, where it extends to 13,000 feet above the sea. The forests of India are on an extensive scale, and include many plants known only as shrubs in our climate, but which there appear as timber trees; among such may be mentioned the rhododendron, "with blossoms red and bright," of which gun-stocks are made, the privet, and a bramble as thick as a stout man's arm. In these forests we likewise meet with many trees greatly resembling our R own, or which are closely allied to British species, and others which have almost become naturalized in Britain; thus, we find the walnut, ash, hornbeam, weeping willow, which in Nepal attains a magnificent size; and a species of oak, the trunk of which sometimes reaches the height of 80 or 100 feet before the branches spread. In the less elevated plains, however, the vegetation assumes a different character, and a vast number of plants occur, peculiar to warm latitudes, and incapable of thriving in temperate climates. Among these, are the teak (fig. 133), the sandal wood (fig. 115), the tree fern of Nepal, 45 feet in height; the rapidly growing bamboo (fig. 210), whose stems or culms, clothed at the top with copious dark green foliage, frequently exceed 100 feet in height, and which literally constitute forests. The celebrated banyan of India, also, usually called the peepul tree (fig. 93), Branching so broad and long, that in the ground The bended twigs take root, and daughters grow These trees are constantly planted near the Hindoo temples. A banyan tree growing on the banks of the Nerbuddah, is described as covering an immense area, the circumference of the space occupied by the parent tree, and its numerous "daughters," exceeding 2000 feet; 320 large trunks have been counted, and the smaller ones exceed 3000, whilst each of these is continually sending forth branches and pendent roots, to form other trunks. It is said that 7000 men have obtained shelter under this very remarkable tree, or group of trees. But among the grandest features of Indian scenery, the palm trees stand pre-eminent, including the superb palmyra, or flabelliform palm, the fan palm (fig. 174), thorn-leaved palm (fig. 182), the date palm, and the cocoa-nut palm, which the Hindoos profess to apply to 365 different uses. Whilst the high table-lands of India include the trees of temperate zones, and the carrot, turnip, and radish, rank among their indigenous productions; in the low districts we |