white-washing their houses, and for chewing with betel. It is a vertical stratum, about two feet wide, and running parallel with the other strata of the mountain. It consists of small irregular rhombic crystals, which agree with the character given by Wallerius of the Spathum arenarium.
In the lower part of the hills, which borders immediately on the plain, are found large masses of a hard red clay, considered by some naturalists, to whom I have shown it, as decomposed schistus. It is called Lungcha by the Newars, and used by them for painting the walls of their houses.
The whole of this mountainous region is copiously watered by limpid streams and springs, and the vegetable productions are of most remarkable stateliness, beauty, and variety. Except at the summits of the mountains, the trees are uncommonly large; and every where, and at all seasons, the earth abounds with the most beautiful flowers, partly resembling those of India, but still more those of Europe.
I have already mentioned the vegetable productions of the mountains, so far as they are objects of cultivation. I shall now mention a few of its spontaneous plants that are applied to use.
The timber trees consist of various oaks, [83a] pines, firs, walnut, [83b] chesnut, hornbeam, yew, laurels, hollies, birches, Gordonia, [83c] Michelias, etc, most of them species hitherto unnoticed by botanists; but some exactly the same as in Europe, such as the yew, holly, hornbeam, walnut, Weymouth pine, (Pinus strobus, W.) and common spruce fir, (Pinus picea, W.) As, however, the greater part are of little value, from the
inaccessible nature of the country, I shall only particularize a few kinds.
The Malayagiri is a tree, of which I have only seen a branch with leaves, and I cannot with any certainty judge what its botanical affinities may be. It has a pale yellow wood, with a very agreeable scent, and on this account might be valuable for fine cabinet work, and might bear the expense of carriage.
The Tinmue, or Taizbul of Colonel Kirkpatrick, [84a] is a species of Fagara. In the mountains of Nepal I have only seen the shrubby kind; but, on the lower hills, I observed another species, which grows to be a tree, and which is probably the larger sort alluded to by the Colonel.
The male Sinkauri, or Silkauli of the mountain Hindus, is a species of Laurus, which is either the Laurus japonica of Rumph, [84b] or approaches very near to that plant. Both its bark and leaves have a fine aromatic smell and taste, and this quality in the leaves is strengthened by drying. They are carried to the low country, and sold under the name of Tejpat; but the tree is of a different species from the Tejpat of Ranggapur.
The female Sinkauri, or Silkauli, like the male, is another tree nearly related to the cinnamon; but its aromatic quality resides in the bark of the root, which has a very permanent fragrance, and would probably give a very fine oil. The specimens brought from the mountains of Morang, appeared to differ in species from the plant of similar qualities that has been introduced into Ranggapur from Bhotan.