these Oaks I suppose is useful for tanning. What a pity, then, that all is wasted! One firm at Cawnpore uses over 100,000 maunds of bark a year, or about 3,700 tons. Surely if the bark was of any use it could have been ground and compressed at Naini Tal, and supplied to Cawnpore at a less rate than the present article used for tanning, the " Babool," or Acacia arabica. There are many things here that might be turned to account.

Apricots and Plums are simply wild all over Naini Tal. The former is small and of poor flavour, but makes excellent jam. The Plum is often nice to eat, but not large, nor of sufficiently good quality to introduce into England: it looks like a very large Bullace, but is sweet and pulpy. I hear a firm of confectioners in Calcutta have already turned both these fruits to good account, and are making fine "pulp" (I don't mean the rubbish exported from France, but good, honest, sour jam), to be worked up in their Calcutta factory. There are many fruit farms established round here. The Government have a large nursery near, whence thousands of "grafted" trees are sent out every year of very indifferent varieties. They issue a catalogue of some 150 varieties. It would save them a lot of trouble, and the buyers much bad language, if the Forest Department would select about ten really fine Apples, and the same number of Pears and Peaches, and propagate these, true to name, and supply these only to the people who intend planting them.

Cheena Mountain, the home of Cupressus torulosa (see fig. 108) is a most interesting place for the botanist, and I cannot attempt to give the names of all the beautiful herbaceous plants I saw there to-day (September 28). This is not the time of year to see it in its glory; but a few names may be of use to some perhaps.

LIST OF PLANTS ON CHEENA.

Aquilegias, Primula denticulata, a Bracken very much like our English one, Desmodiums, two Lilies, one with large white flowers, much like Wallichianum, another pink with recurved segments. These will soon be exterminated, as they are pulled up, roots and all, to decorate the rooms of Europeans. A fine blue Thistle, white and blue Asters, of several kinds-one is very pretty when hanging in masses from the rocks-Centaureas with white leaves and large yellow flowers, Thalictrums, Sage-like plants in great variety, Wild Thyme, a purple Geranium like

our English G. pratense, Hypericum (two species), a yellow Clematis, with bell-shaped flowers, very pretty. One of the handsomest trees on the lower hills of Cheena is a large vineleaf-shaped Maple. The treeless slopes are a mass of blue Thistles, Verbascums, white Everlastings, Ragwort, and other flowering herbaceous plants. The rocks are covered with masses of a fine small-leaved Cotoneaster, and in sheltered places, Cheilanthes, in two varieties, and a pretty Selaginella grow. The large and exposed cliffs are generally covered with large-leaved Saxifrages, Ampelopsis, and a lovely blue Composite, like a blue Dandelion. The shaded gorges below Cheena, on the north, are filled with a magnificent Oak (evergreen) forest, and Ferns are very abundant. The tree trunks are covered with a mass of Polypodium appendiculatum, and the shaded banks with a very pretty Adiantum, much like A. Monochlamys of Japan. We found also a beautiful Anoectochilus growing in the moss in one place; also a Cornus, a bush with lovely corymbs of scarlet berries, quite a feature in the jungle. On the tops of the ridges are masses of Spiræa, a shrubby species, with Deutzias and Berberids. I noticed the Forest Department had planted Walnuts largely in one place, and they seem to do very well. Primula denticulata is very abundant, and a fine scarlet-flowered Polygonum. Under the dense shade of the forest the banks are covered with a fine-leaved Ophiopogon. A great feature now on Cheena are the masses of white Everlastings, three or four varieties: one sees them for miles on the green slopes. This is the home of the bhurul (wild sheep), sarou (goat antelope), kharker (barking deer), jarou (large deer, or sambur); there are also plenty of panthers, fresh marks of which we constantly came across in our rambles. The College and Cheer pheasant abound here; also wood-partridges.

Naini Tal can be sometimes a very wet place. It commenced to rain at 10 P.M. last night, and came down in torrents. I have been in my room ever since. To-day the rain has not abated one jot, and is now coming down so hard that one cannot discern an object 100 yards off. The total rainfall for June, July, August, to September 16 this season is 166 63 inches; rather a good amount for three months and a half-more than England receives in three years I daresay. Yet people think they can grow fine Apples and Pears in such a downpour! The