receives a moderate supply of rain throughout the year. In January and December there are frosts in the night, and the extreme radiation which goes on in the valleys causes great cold at sunrise; but these frosts are confined to the valleys in the upper plateau, and they never visit the higher slopes, or the well-wooded "_sholas_." The climates of the Neilgherry hills are the most delightful in the world; and it may be said of this salubrious region, with its equable seasons, what the Persian poet said of Kung, "the warmth is not heat, and the coolness is not cold."[401] On the open plateau, in the wooded _sholas_, and in the thick forests of the lower slopes, there is a great variety of beautiful flowering trees and shrubs; and the vegetation of the hills is both varied and luxuriant. First, in the brilliant splendour of its flowers, must be mentioned the tree rhododendron (_Rhododendron arboreum_), which is very common in all parts of the hills, either forming small thickets or dotted about on the grassy slopes. It grows to a height of twenty feet, with a gnarled stunted trunk, and masses of deep crimson flowers. In the "sholas" are the _Michelia nilagiraca_, a large tree, with yellowish-white fragrant flowers of great size; the _Symplocos pulchra_, with hairy leaves and snow-white flowers; the _Ilex Wightiana_, a large umbrageous tree, with small white flowers and red berries; the pretty pink-flowered _Rhodo-myrtus tomentosa_, the berries of which are called "hill gooseberries;" the _Jasminum revolutum_, a shrub with sweet yellow flowers; the _Sapota elingoides_, a fine forest-tree, with rough cracked bark, and an edible fruit used in curries; _Crotalariæ_; _Bignoniæ_; peppers, cinnamon, a number of chinchonaceous shrubs, and many others.