e
the cymbidiums, of which there are sixteen different species, usually
with long grassy leaves and many-flowered drooping racemes with
large handsome flowers. A very sweet-scented species is the
_Cymbidium eburneum,_ which is common between elevations of
1,000 to 3,000 feet, and flowers during March and April. The
prevailing colour of the flowers is an ivory white, but the ridge on
the lip is a brilliant yellow. This also may be seen at Kew in March.

These are some of the commonest orchids and all now grow in
England, so that we can begin to get a footing in the forest and not
feel that it is so completely strange to us. And as we ascend higher
we shall find many more friends among the flowers. And to guide us
among the trees and flowers we fortunately have Sir Joseph Hooker,
who in his "Himalayan Journals" has described this botanist's
paradise in loving detail, so we cannot do better than follow him.
Amid the many plants he mentions we can only select a few, but
these few will at least help to give us some conception of the whole
and show the range of variation as we ascend.

As we proceed higher up the valley to an altitude of about 4,000 feet,
European trees and plants begin to be intermingled with the tropical
vegetation. Hornbeams appear, and birch, willow, alder, and walnut
grow side by side with wild plantains, palms, and gigantic bamboos.
Brambles, speedwells, forget-me-nots, and nettles grow mixed with
figs, balsams, peppers, and huge climbing vines. The wild English
strawberry is found on the ground, while above tropical orchids like
the dendrobiums cover the trunks of the oaks. The bracken and the
club-moss of our British moors grow associated with tree-ferns. And
English grow alongside Himalayan mosses.

The valley itself continues of the same character--deep with its steep
sides clothed in forest and the path scrambling over spurs, making
wide detours up side valleys, or scraping along the sides of cliffs
which stand perpendicularly over the raging river below. Only here
and there are clearings in the forest where Lepchas or Nepalese have
built themselves a few wooden houses and roughly cultivated the
land. Otherwise we are under the same green mantle of forest which
extends everywhere over the mountains; and though we are now
piercing straight through the main axis of the Himalaya, we seldom
catch even a glimpse of the snowy heights which must be so near.

But the vegetation is distinctly changing