To the botanist, India yields, as the reward of plant-collecting toil, specimens varying from such as flourish near the equator to those which thrive near the line of everlasting snow, illustrating the chief natural families of all parts of the world. Yet it has few distinctive features of its own.

Nothing can be more wretchedly plain in appearance than the treeless, shrubless, shelterless plains in the northern province of the Madras Presidency, or in parts of the Deccan. In Western India, and even in the southern slopes of the western Himalayas, there are low ranges of hills, denuded of vegetation, which have all the barrenness of Arabian or African deserts; yet, other portions of this wonderful country are of such fertility as to yield even two or three harvests annually.

The vegetation of India being so varied, we will first consider that of the Himalayas, second that of the great plains of the Ganges, etc., and lastly that of the Deccan.

The European flora, which is diffused from the Mediterranean along the high lands of Asia, extends to the Himalayas. Many species reach the central parts of the chain, though but few are found at its eastern end. From the opposite quarter there has been an influx of Japanese and Chinese forms, such as the rhododendrons, the tea plant, and others, numerous in the east, and gradually disappearing in the West.

At the greater elevations, the species which are identical with those of Europe become more frequent, and in the Alpine regions many plants are found which grow in the Arctic Zone. In Thibet, a Siberian type is established, some forms of which are also found in the plains of Upper India. Juniper and poplar are the only trees seen, except fruit trees, which include apricots, pears and apples, growing up the mountain sides to 11,000 feet, and grapes to 9,000 feet.

The shrubby plants include small forms of willow, elm, honeysuckle and rose. Mosses and ferns are very rare, but many European grasses and sedges are found in the pastures.

In the moist regions of the east, the Himalayas are almost everywhere covered with a dense forest which reaches up to 12,000 or 13,000 feet. Many tropical types here ascend to 7,000 feet or more. To the west, the upper limit of forests and tropical plants is from 1,000 to 2,000 feet lower.

In Sikim, directly north of Calcutta, dense forests of tall trees have a luxuriant growth of under shrubs and are adorned with climbing plants in wonderful profusion.

In the tropical parts large figs abound, with the sal, so valuable for its timber, laurels, bamboos, and several palms, and climbing over the largest of these, species of calamus are found. This is the western limit of the nutmeg. Plantains ascend to 7,000 feet, and pandanus and tree-ferns abound. Other ferns, orchids, and climbing plants are very numerous, with their varieties of splendid foliage.

Various oaks are found within a few hundred feet of the sea level, but are more abundant higher, becoming very frequent at 4,000 feet.

At this elevation magnolias, cherries, apples, maples, alders, birches, etc., also appear. At 6,000 feet the rhododendrons begin, become abundant at 8,000 feet, and from 10,000 feet to 14,000 feet form in many places the mass of the shrubby vegetation which extends above the forests.

Of these wonderful plants, the most superb is a tree from 30 to 50 feet high, having leaves 18 or 19 inches long, and only at the extremities of the branches. One species has beautiful flowers 4 1/2 inches long, and as broad, in dense clusters; some have white flowers; some are epiphytes, growing upon magnolias, laurels and oaks, and bearing from three to six white, lemon-scented bells 4 1/2 inches long at the end of each branch. Others, with small flowers, are trailing shrubs; but the largest is a timber tree, from 50 to 70 feet in height, covered with a blaze of crimson flowers. Some species are narcotic; the buds of others produce an oil much used for rheumatism; some are poisonous, even the burning of the wood as fuel causing inflammation of the face and eyes; while the flowers of others are used as food by the natives, and the Europeans make them into a jelly Passing westward along the mountains, we find the trees of the hotter and drier parts of Southern India. Ferns are rare, the tree ferns have disappeared, and but two or three species of palm, with as many of bamboo, are found.

The outer ranges are mainly covered with immense tracts of pine, rhododendron, oaks, and, in some places, cypress. The shrubs comprise rosa, rubus, indigofera, viburnum, clematis, etc. Of herbaceous plants, species of ranunculus, poten-tilla, geranium, thalictrum, primula, gentiana, and and many other European forms are common.

On the northern slopes and in sheltered valleys, are the denser forests of alder, birch, ash, elm, maple, etc., and still higher the common walnut, horse-chestnut, yew, and several junipers.

Cultivation hardly extends above 7,000 feet, except in the valleys behind the great snowy peaks, where a few fields of buckwheat and barley are sown up to 11,000 or 12,000 feet.

Lower, rice, maize and millets are common; also wheat and barley, with buckwheat and amaranth, whose seeds are gathered as corn crops on poor lands recently reclaimed from forest. Most of the ordinary vegetables of the plains are raised, and potatoes in the neighborhood of all the English stations.

In Kashmir, the plane and Lombardy poplar flourish though hardly seen further east; the cherry is cultivated in orchards, and the vegetation is decidedly European.

One species of coffee is found in this range, but its cultivation is very limited. Tea, however, is more successful both in the east and west of the mountains, and cinchona has been naturalized in the Sikim Mountains.

The total number of flowering plants inhabiting the Himalayas amounts to 5,000 or 6,000 species. - The Student.