Though the botany of Paras-nath proved interesting, its elevation was not accompanied by such a change from the flora of its base as I had expected. This is no doubt due to its dry climate and sterile soil; characters which it shares with the extensive elevated area of which it forms a part, and upon which I could not detect above 300 species of plants during my journey. Yet, that the atmosphere at the summit is more damp as well as cooler than at the base, is proved as well by the observations as by the vegetation;[14] and in some respects, as the increased proportion of ferns, additional epiphytal orchideous plants, _Begonias,_ and other species showed, its top supported a more tropical flora than its base. [14] Of plants eminently typical of a moister atmosphere, I may mention the genera _Bolbophyllum, Begonia, Æginetia, Disporum, Roxburghia, Panax, Eugenia, Myrsine, Shorea, Millettia,_ ferns, mosses, and foliaceous lichens; which appeared in strange association with such dry-climate genera as _Kalanchoe, Pterospermum,_ and the dwarf-palm, _Phœnix._ Add to this list the _Berberis asiatica, Clematis nutans, Thalictrum glyphocarpum,_ 27 grasses, _Cardamine,_ etc., and the mountain top presents a mixture of the plants of a damp hot, a dry hot, and of a temperate climate, in fairly balanced proportions. The prime elements of a tropical flora were however wholly wanting on Paras-nath, where are neither Peppers, _Pothos, Arum,_ tall or climbing palms, tree-ferns, _Guttiferæ,_ vines, or laurels. Chapter II Doomree—Vegetation of table-land—Lieutenant Beadle—Birds—Hot springs of Soorujkoond—Plants near them—Shells in them—Cholera-tree—Olibanum—Palms, form of—Dunwah Pass—Trees, native and planted—Wild peacock—Poppy fields—Geography and geology of Behar and Central India—Toddy-palm—Ground, temperature of—Barroon—Temperature of plants—Lizard—Cross the Soane—Sand, ripple marks on—Kymore hills—Ground, temperature of—Limestone—Rotas fort and palace—Nitrate of lime—Change of climate—Lime stalagmites, enclosing leaves—Fall of Soane—Spiders, etc.—Scenery and natural history of upper Soane valley—_Hardwickia binata_—Bhel fruit—Dust-storm—Alligator—Catechu—_Cochlospermum_ —Leaf-bellows—Scorpions—Tortoises—Florican—Limestone spheres—Coles—Tiger-hunt—Robbery. In the evening we returned to our tamarind tree, and the next morning regained the trunk road, following it to the dawk bungalow of Doomree. On the way I found the _Cæsalpinia paniculuta,_ a magnificent climber, festooning the trues with its dark glossy foliage and gorgeous racemes of orange blossoms. Receding from the mountain, the country again became barren: at Doomree the hills were of crystalline rocks, chiefly quartz and gneiss; no palms or large trees of any kind appeared. The spear-grass abounded, and a detestable nuisance it was, its long awns and husked seed working through trowsers and stockings.