Himalayan Journals, vol 2 by J. D. Hooker (great reads TXT) 📖

these countries, I should not be surprised at his yet cutting a figure in Bhotan, if not in Sikkim itself: especially if, at the Rajah's death, the

British government should refuse to take the country under its

protection. The Singtam Soubah and the other culprits live disgraced at their homes. Tchebu Lama has received a handsome reward, and a

grant of land at Dorjiling, where he resides, and whence he sends me his salaams by every opportunity.

CHAPTER XXVII.

Leave Dorjiling for Calcutta -- Jung Bahadoor -- Dr. Falconer --

Improvements in Botanic Gardens -- Palmetum -- Victoria --

Amherstia -- Orchids spread by seed -- Banyan -- Cycas --

Importation of American plants in ice -- Return to Dorjiling -- Leave with Dr. Thomson for the Khasia mountains -- Mahanuddy river --

Vegetation of banks -- Maldah -- Alligators -- Rampore-Bauleah --

Climate of Ganges -- Pubna -- Jummul river -- Altered course of

Burrampooter and Megna -- Dacca -- Conch shells -- Saws -- Cotton

muslins -- Fruit -- Vegetation -- Elevation -- Rose of Bengal --

Burrampooter -- Delta of Soormah river -- Jheels -- Soil --

Vegetation -- Navigation -- Mosquitos -- Atmospheric pressure --

Effects of geological changes -- Imbedding of plants -- Teelas or

islets -- Chattuc -- Salubrious climate -- Rains -- Canoes -- Pundua -- Mr. Harry Inglis -- Terrya Ghat -- Ascent to Churra -- Scenery and vegetation at foot of mountains -- Cascades.

I was chiefly occupied during January and February of 1850, in

arranging and transmitting my collections to Calcutta, and completing my manuscripts, maps, and surveys. My friend Dr. Thomson having

joined me here, for the purpose of our spending a year in travelling and botanising together, it became necessary to decide on the best

field for our pursuits. Bhotan offered the most novelty, but it was inaccessible to Europeans; and we therefore turned our thoughts to

Nepal, and failing that, to the Khasia mountains.

The better to expedite our arrangements, I made a trip to Calcutta in March, where I expected to meet both Lord Dalhousie, on his return

from the Straits of Malacca, and Jung Bahadoor (the Nepalese

minister), who was then en route as envoy to England. I staid at

Government House, where every assistance was afforded me towards

obtaining the Nepal Rajah's permission to proceed through the

Himalaya from Dorjiling to Katmandu. Jung Bahadoor received me with much courtesy, and expressed his great desire to serve me; but begged me to wait until his return from England, as he could not be

answerable for my personal safety when travelling during his absence; and he REferred to the permission he had formerly given me (and such was never before accorded to any European) in earnest of his

disposition, which was unaltered. We therefore determined upon

spending the season of 1850 in the Khasia mountains in eastern

Bengal, at the head of the great delta of the Ganges and Burrampooter.

Illustration--DR. FALCONER'S RESIDENCE, CALCUTTA BOTANIC GARDENS,

FROM SIR L. PEEL'S GROUNDS.

I devoted a few days to the Calcutta Botanic Gardens, where I found my kind friend Dr. Falconer established, and very busy.

The destruction of most of the palms, and of all the noble tropical features of the gardens, during Dr. Griffith's incumbency, had

necessitated the replanting of the greater part of the grounds, the obliteration of old walks, and the construction of new: it was also necessary to fill up tanks whose waters, by injudicious cuttings,

were destroying some of the most valuable parts of the land, to drain many acres, and to raise embankments to prevent the encroachments of the Hoogly: the latter being a work attended with great expense, now cripples the resources of the garden library, and other valuable

adjuncts; for the trees which were planted for the purpose having

been felled and sold, it became necessary to buy timber at an

exorbitant price.

The avenue of Cycas trees (Cycas circinalis), once the admiration of all visitors, and which for beauty and singularity was unmatched in any tropical garden, had been swept away by the same unsparing

hand which had destroyed the teak, mahogany, clove, nutmeg, and

cinnamon groves. In 1847, when I first visited the establishment,

nothing was to be seen of its former beauty and grandeur, but a few noble trees or graceful palms rearing their heads over a low ragged jungle, or spreading their broad leaves or naked limbs over the

forlorn hope of a botanical garden, that consisted of open clay beds, disposed in concentric circles, and baking into brick under the

fervid heat of a Bengal sun.

The rapidity of growth is so great in this climate, that within eight months from the commencement of the improvements, a great change had already taken place. The grounds bore a park-like appearance; broad shady walks had replaced the narrow winding paths that ran in

distorted lines over the ground, and a large Palmetum, or collection of tall and graceful palms of various kinds, occupied several acres at one side of the garden; whilst a still larger portion of ground

was being appropriated to a picturesque assemblage of certain closely allied families of plants, whose association promised to form a novel and attractive object of study to the botanist, painter, and

landscape gardener. This, which the learned Director called in

scientific language a Thamno-Endogenarium, consists of groups of all kinds of bamboos, tufted growing palms, rattan canes (Calami),

Dracaenae, plantains, screw-pines, (Pandani, and such genera of tropical monocotyledonous plants. All are evergreens of most vivid

hue, some of which, having slender trailing stems, form magnificent masses; others twine round one another, and present impenetrable

hillocks of green foliage; whilst still others shoot out broad long wavy leaves from tufted roots; and a fourth class is supported by

aerial roots, diverging on all sides and from all heights on the

stems, every branch of which is crowned with an enormous plume of

grass-like leaves.* [Since I left India, these improvements have been still further carried out, and now (in the spring of 1853) I read of five splendid Victoria plants flowering at once, with _Euryale

ferox,_ white, blue, and red water-lilies, and white, yellow and

scarlet lotus, rendering the tanks gorgeous, sunk as their waters are in frames of green grass, ornamented with clumps of Nipa fruticans

and Phoenix paludosa.]

The great Amherstia tree had been nearly killed by injudicious

treatment, and the baking of the soil above its roots. This defect

was remedied by sinking bamboo pipes four feet and a half in the

earth, and watering through them--a plan first recommended by Major M`Farlane of Tavoy. Some fine Orchideae were in flower in the,

gardens, but few of them fruit; and those Dendrobiums which bear

axillary viviparous buds never do. Some of the orchids appear to be spread by birds amongst the trees; but the different species of

Vanda are increasing so fast, that there seems no doubt that this tribe of air-plants grows freely from seed in a wild state, though we generally fail to rear them in England.

The great Banyan tree (Ficus Indica) is still the pride and

ornament of the garden. Dr. Falconer has ascertained satisfactorily that it is only seventy-five years old: annual rings, size, etc.,

afford no evidence in such a case, but people were alive a few years ago who remembered well its site being occupied in 1782 by a Kujoor (Date-palm), out of whose crown the Banyan sprouted, and beneath

which a Fakir sat. It is a remarkable fact that the banyan hardly

ever vegetates on the ground; but its figs are eaten by birds, and

the seeds deposited in the crowns of palms, where they grow, sending down roots that embrace and eventually kill the palm, which decays

away. This tree is now eighty feet high, and throws an area 300 feet*

[Had this tree been growing in 1849 over the great palm-stove at Kew, only thirty feet of each end of that vast structure would have been uncovered: its increase was proceeding so rapidly, that by this time it could probably cover the whole. Larger banyans are common in

Bengal; but few are so symmetrical in shape and height. As the tree gets old, it breaks up into separate masses, the original trunk

decaying, and the props becoming separate trunks of the different

portions.] in diameter into a dark, cool shade. The gigantic limbs

spread out about ten feet above the ground, and from neglect during Dr. Wallich's absence, there were on Dr. Falconer's arrival no more than eighty-nine descending roots or props; there are now several

hundreds, and the growth of this grand mass of vegetation is

proportionably stimulated and increased. The props are induced to

sprout by wet clay and moss tied to the branches, beneath which a

little pot of water is hung, and after they have made some progress, they are inclosed in bamboo tubes, and so coaxed down to the ground.

They are mere slender whip-cords before reaching the earth, where

they root, remaining very lax for several months; but gradually, as they grow and swell to the size of cables, they tighten, and

eventually become very tense. This is a curious phenomenon, and so

rapid, that it appears to be due to the rooting part mechanically

dragging down the aerial. The branch meanwhile continues to grow

outwards, and being supplied by its new support, thickens beyond it, whence the props always slant outwards from the ground towards the

circumference of the tree.

Cycas trees abound in the gardens, and, though generally having

only one, or rarely two crowns, they have sometimes sixteen, and

their stems are everywhere covered with leafy buds, which are

developed on any check being given to the growth of the plant, as by the operation of transplantation, which will cause as many as 300

buds to appear in the course of a few years, on a trunk eight

feet high.

During my stay at the gardens, Dr. Falconer received a box of living plants packed in moss, and transported in a frozen state by one of

the ice ships from North America:* [The ice from these ships is sold in the Calcutta market for a penny a pound, to great profit; it has already proved an invaluable remedy in cases of inflammation and

fever, and has diminished mortality to a very appreciable extent.]

they left in November, and arriving in March, I was present at the

opening of the boxes, and saw 391 plants (the whole contents) taken out in the most perfect state. They were chiefly fruit-trees, apples, pears, peaches, currants, and gooseberries, with beautiful plants of the Venus' fly-trap (Dionaea muscipula). More perfect success never attended an experiment: the plants were in vigorous bud, and the day after being released from their icy bonds, the leaves sprouted and

unfolded, and they were packed in Ward's cases for immediate

transport to the Himalaya mountains.

My visit to Calcutta enabled me to compare my instruments with the

standards at the Observatory, in which I was assisted by my friend, Capt. Thuillier, to whose kind offices on this and many other

occasions I am greatly indebted.

I returned to Dorjiling on the 17th of April, and Dr. Thomson and I commenced our arrangements for proceeding to the Khasia mountains.

We started on the 1st of May, and I bade adieu to Dorjiling with no light heart; for I was leaving the kindest and most disinterested

friends I had ever made in a foreign land, and a country whose

mountains, forests, productions, and people had all become endeared to me by many ties and associations. The prospects of Dorjiling

itself are neither doubtful nor insignificant. Whether or not Sikkim will fall again under the protection of Britain, the station must

prosper, and that very speedily. I had seen both its native

population and