The Catholic World Volume Ii Part 29

"Behind (or north) the Himalaya rise in steep confused ma.s.ses.

Below, the hill on which I stood, and the ranges as far as the eye can reach east and west, throw spurs on the plains of India. These are very thickly wooded, and enclose broad, dead-flat, hot, or damp valleys, apparently covered with a dense forest. Secondary spurs of clay and gravel, like that immediately below Punkabaree, rest on the bases of the mountains and seem to form an intermediate neutral ground between flat and mountainous India. The Terai district forms a very irregular belt, scantily clothed, and intersected by innumerable rivulets from the hills, which unite and divide again on the flat, till, emerging from the region of many trees, they enter the plains, following devious courses, which glisten like silver threads. The whole horizon is bounded by the sea-like expanse of the plains, which stretch away into the region of suns.h.i.+ne and fine weather, as one boundless flat. In the distance the courses of the Teesta and Cosi, the great drainers of the snowy Himalayas, and the recipients of innumerable smaller rills, are with difficulty traced at this the dry season. The ocean-like appearance of this southern view is even more conspicuous in the heavens than on the land, the clouds arranging themselves after a singularly sea-scape fas.h.i.+on.

Endless strata run in parallel ribbons over the extreme horizon; above these scattered c.u.muli, also in horizontal lines, are dotted against a clear grey sky, which gradually, as the eye is lifted, pa.s.ses into a deep cloudless blue vault, continuously clear to the zenith; there the c.u.muli, in white fleecy ma.s.ses, again appear; till, in the northern celestial hemisphere, they thicken and a.s.sume the leaden hue of nimbi, discharging their moisture on the dark forest-clad hills around. The breezes are south-easterly, bringing that {192} vapor from the Indian ocean which is rarefied and suspended aloft over the heated plains, but condensed into a drizzle when it strikes the cooler flanks of the hills, and into heavy rain when it meets their still colder summits. Upon what a gigantic scale does nature here operate! Vapors raised from an ocean whose nearest sh.o.r.e is more than 400 miles distant are safely transported without the loss of one drop of water, to support the rank luxuriance of this far distant region. This and other offices fulfilled, the waste waters are returned by the Cosi and Teesta to the ocean, and again exhaled, exported, expended, recollected, and returned."

Many travellers complain of the annoyance caused to them by leeches.

Legions of these pests abound in the water-courses and dense jungles of the Sikkim, and though their bite is painless, it is followed by considerable effusion of blood. "They puncture through thick worsted stockings, and even trousers; and when full roll in the form of a little soft ball into the bottom of the shoe, where their presence is hardly felt in walking."

A thousand feet higher, above the bungalow of Punkabaree, the vegetation is very rich, the prevalent timber being of enormous size, "and scaled by climbing _Leguminosae_, as _Bauhinias_ and _Robinias_, which sometimes sheathe the trunks or span the forest with huge cables, joining tree to tree." Their trunks are also clothed with orchids; and still more beautifully with pothos, peppers, vines, and convolvuli.

"The beauty of the drapery of the pothos leaves (_Scindapsus_) is pre-eminent, whether for the graceful folds the foliage a.s.sumes or for the liveliness of its color. Of the more conspicuous smaller trees the wild banana is the most abundant; its crown of very beautiful foliage contrasting with the smaller-leaved plants amongst which it nestles; next comes a screwpine (_Panda.n.u.s_) with a straight stem and a tuft of leaves, each eight or ten feet long, waving on all sides.

_Araliaceae_, with smooth or armed slender trunks, and _Mappa_-like _Euphorbiaceae_ spread their long petioles horizontally forth, each terminated with an ample leaf some feet in diameter. Bamboo abounds everywhere; its dense tufts of culms, 100 feet and upward high, are as thick as a man's thigh at the base. Twenty or thirty species of ferns (including a tree fern) were luxuriant and handsome. Foliaceous lichens and a few mosses appeared at 2,000 feet. Such is the vegetation of the roads through the tropical forests of Outer Himalaya."

As we ascend about 2,000 feet higher, we find many plants of the temperate zone mingling with the tropical vegetation, amongst which "a very English-looking bramble," bearing a good yellow fruit, is the first to mark the change; next, mighty oaks with large lamellated cups and magnificent foliage succeed, till along the ridge of the mountain to Kursiong, at an elevation of about 4,800 feet, the change in the flora is complete. Here the vegetation recalls to mind home impressions: "the oak flowering, the birch bursting into leaf, the violet, _Chrysosplenium, Stellaria and Arum, Vaccinium_, wild strawberry, maple, geranium, bramble. A colder wind blew here; mosses and lichens carpeted the banks and roadsides; the birds and insects were very different from those below, and everything proclaimed the marked change in the vegetation." And yet even at this elevation we meet with forms of tropical plants, "pothos, bananas, palms, figs, pepper, numbers of epiphytal orchids, and similar genuine tropical genera."

The hill-station of Darjiling, the well-known sanitarium, where the health of Europeans is recruited by a temperate climate, is about 370 miles to the north of Calcutta. The ridge "varies in height from 6,500 to 7,500 feet above the level of the sea, 8,000 feet being the elevation at which the mean temperature most nearly coincides with that of London, viz., 50." {193} The forests around Darjiling are composed princ.i.p.ally of magnolias, oaks, laurels, with birch, alder, maple, holly. Dr. Hooker draws especial attention to the absence of _Leguminosae_, "the most prominent botanical feature in the vegetation of the region," which, he says, is too high for the tropical tribes of the warmer elevation, too low for the Alpines, and probably too moist for those of temperate regions; cool, equable, humid climates being generally unfavorable to the above-named order. "The supremacy of this temperate region consists in the infinite number of forest trees, in the absence (in the usual proportion, at any rate) of such common orders as _Compositae, Leguminosae, Cruciferae_ and _Ranunculaceae_, and of gra.s.ses amongst Monocotyledons, and in the predominance of the rarer and more local families, as those of rhododendron, camellia, magnolia, ivy, cornel, honeysuckle, hydrangea, begonia, and epiphytic orchids."

We regret that want of s.p.a.ce prevents us dwelling longer on the scenes of tropical Himalaya, so graphically described by Dr. Hooker. We will conclude this imperfect sketch with our traveller's description of the scenery along the banks of the great Rungeet, 6,000 feet below Darjiling:

"Leaving the forest, the path led along the river bank and over the great ma.s.ses of rock which strewed its course. The beautiful India-rubber fig was common... . On the forest skirts, _Hoya_, parasitical _Orchidiae_, and ferns abounded; the Chaulmoogra, whose fruit is used to intoxicate fish, was very common, as was an immense mulberry-tree, that yields a milky juice and produces a long, green, sweet fruit. Large fish, chiefly cyprinoid, were abundant in the beautifully clear water of the river. But by far the most striking feature consisted in the amazing quant.i.ty of superb b.u.t.terflies, large tropical swallow-tails, black, with scarlet or yellow eyes on their wings. They were seen everywhere, sailing majestically through the still, hot air, or fluttering from one scorching rock to another, and especially loving to settle on the damp sand of the river; where they sat by thousands, with erect wings, balancing themselves with a rocking motion, as their heavy sails inclined them to one side or the other, resembling a crowded fleet of yachts on a calm day. Such an entomological display cannot be surpa.s.sed.

_Cicindelae_ and the great _Cicadeae_ were everywhere lighting on the ground, when they uttered a short sharp creaking sound, and anon disappeared as if by magic. Beautiful whip-snakes were gleaming in the sun; they hold on by a few coils of the tall round a twig, the greater part of their body stretched out horizontally, occasionally retracting and darting an unerring aim at some insect. The narrowness of the gorge, and the excessive steepness of the bounding hills, prevented any view except of the opposite mountain-face, which was one dense forest, in which the wild banana was conspicuous."

One of the most remarkable botanical discoveries of modern days is that of a very curious and anomalous genus of plants, named by Dr.

Hooker _Welwitschia_ in honor of its discoverer. Dr. Frederic Welwitsch, who first noticed this singular plant in a letter to Sir William Hooker, dated August, 1860. "I have been a.s.sured," says Dr.

Hooker in his valuable memoir of this plant, "by those who remember it, that since the discovery of the _Rafflesia Arnoldii_, no vegetable production has excited so great an interest as the subject of the present memoir." We well remember this singular plant, having seen a specimen in the Kew Herbarium soon after its arrival in this country.

The following is Dr. Hooker's account of its appearance and prominent characters:

"The _Welwitschia_ is a woody plant, said to attain a century in duration, with an obconic trunk about two feet long, of which a few inches rise {194} above the soil, presenting the appearance of a flat, two-lobed depressed ma.s.s, sometimes (according to Dr.

Welwitsch) attaining fourteen feet in circ.u.mference (!) and looking like a round table. When full grown, it is dark brown, hard, and cracked over the whole surface (much like the burnt crust of a loaf of bread); the lower portion forms a stout tap-root, buried in the soil and branching downward at the end. From deep grooves in the circ.u.mference of the depressed ma.s.s two enormous leaves are given off, each six feet long when full grown, one corresponding to each lobe. These are quite flat, linear, very leathery, and split to the base into innumerable thongs that lie curling upon the surface of the soil. Its discoverer describes these same two leaves as being present from the earliest condition of the plant, and a.s.sures me that they are in fact developed from the two cotyledons of the seed, and are persistent, being replaced by no others. From the circ.u.mference of the tabular ma.s.s, above but close to the insertion of the leaves, spring stout dichotomously branched cymes, nearly a foot high, bearing small erect scarlet cones, which eventually become oblong and attain the size of those of the common spruce fir.

The scales of the cones are very closely imbricated, and contain when young and still very small solitary flowers, which in some cases are hermaphrodite (structurally but not functionally), in others female."

After describing these flowers in botanical terms. Dr. Hooker adds, "The mature cone is tetragonous, and contains a broadly winged scale.

Its discoverer observes that the whole plant exudes a resin, and that it is called 'tumbo' by the natives. It inhabits the elevated sandy plateau near Cape Negro (lat 14 40' S. to 23 S.) on the south-west coast of Africa." Dr. Hooker regards the _Welwitschia_ as "the only perennial flowering-plant which at no period has other vegetative organs than those proper to the embryo itself,--the main axis being represented by the radicle, which becomes a gigantic caulicle and develops a root from its base, and inflorescences from its plumulary end, and the leaves being the two cotyledons in a very highly developed and specialized condition." [Footnote 29]

[Footnote 29: "Transactions of the Linnean Society," vol. xxiv., part i.]

Few countries present more objects of interest to the naturalist than the island of Madagascar, amongst the botanical treasures of which island the water yam or lace-leaf (_Ouviranidra fenestralis_) claims especial notice. This beautiful and singular plant, which belongs to the natural order _Naiadaceae_, was first made known to the scientific world by du Pet.i.t Thouars in 1822. Horticulturists are indebted to Mr.

Ellis, the well-known author of "Polynesian Researches," for the introduction of this singular plant into England, specimens of which may be seen in the Royal Gardens at Kew and elsewhere:

"This plant," says Mr. Ellis, "is not only extremely curious, but also very valuable to the natives, who, at certain seasons of the year, gather it as an article of food--the fleshy root when cooked yielding a farinaceous substance resembling the yam. Hence its native name, _ouvirandrano_, literally, yam of the water;--_ouvi_ in the Malagasy and Polynesian languages signifying yam, and _rano_ in the former and some of the latter signifying water. The ouvirandra is not only a rare and curious, but a singularly beautiful plant, both in structure and color. From the several crowns of the branching root, growing often a foot or more deep in the water, a number of graceful leaves, nine or ten inches long and two or three inches wide, spread out horizontally just beneath the surface of the water. The flower-stalks rise from the centre of the leaves, and the branching or forked flower is curious; but the structure of the leaf is peculiarly so, and seems like a living fibrous skeleton rather than an entire leaf. The {195} longitudinal fibres extend in curved lined along its entire length, and are united by thread-like fibres or veins, crossing them at right angles from side to side, at a short distance from each other. The whole leaf looks as if composed of fine tendrils, wrought after a most regular pattern, so as to resemble a piece of bright-green lace or open needlework. Each leaf rises from the crown on the root like a short delicate-looking pale green or yellow fibre; gradually unfolding its feathery-looking sides and increasing its size as it spreads beneath the water. The leaves in their several stages of growth pa.s.s through almost every gradation of color, from a pale yellow to a dark olive-green, becoming brown or even black before they finally decay; air-bubbles of considerable size frequently appearing under the full-formed and healthy leaves. It is scarcely possible to imagine any object of the kind more attractive and beautiful than a full-grown specimen of this plant, with its dark green leaves forming the limit of a circle two or three feet in diameter, and in the transparent water within that circle presenting leaves in every stage of development, both as to color and size. Nor is it the least curious to notice that these slender and fragile structures, apparently not more substantial than the gossamer and flexible as a feather, still possess a tenacity and wiriness which allow the delicate leaf to be raised by the hand to the surface of the water without injury."

No natural order of plants has created or continues to create a greater degree of interest amongst travellers and botanists than the _Orchidaceae_, of which more than three thousand species have been described; the anomalous structure of their reproductory parts, the singularity in form of the floral envelopes, the grotesque resemblance which many kinds bear to some object or other of the animal world, the rarity, beauty, and delicious fragrance of some forms--all combine to render these plants of great value and interest. As inhabitants of hot and damp localities, orchids are in general epiphytes, as in the Brazilian forests, in the lower portions of the Himalayan mountains, and in the islands of the Indian archipelago; when they occur in temperate regions they are terrestrial in their mode of growth; in extremely dry or cold climates, orchidaceous plants are unknown. Two rare and beautiful epiphytal orchids, the _Angraec.u.m sesquipedale_ and _A. superb.u.m_, were obtained by Mr. Ellis in Madagascar and Mauritius, and introduced into this country. Of the former, the largest flowered of all the orchids, Dr. Lindley has given the following description:

"The plant forms a stem about eighteen inches high, covered with long leathery leaves in two ranks, like _Venda tricolor_ and its allies; but they have a much more beautiful appearance, owing to a drooping habit, and a delicate bloom which clothes their surface.

From the axils of the uppermost of these leaves appear short stiff flower-stalks, each bearing three and sometimes five flowers, extending seven inches in breadth and the same in height. They are furnished with a firm, curved, tapering, tail-like spur, about fourteen inches long. When first open, the flower is slightly tinged with green except the tip, which is almost pure white; after a short time the green disappears, and the whole surface acquires the softest waxy texture and perfect whiteness. In this condition they remain, preserving all their delicate beauty, for more than five weeks. Even before they expand, the greenish buds, which are three inches long, have a very n.o.ble appearance."

To the scientific naturalist few subjects are more full of deep interest than the question of the geographical distribution of animals. Dr. Sclater, the active secretary of the Zoological Society of London, has contributed an instructive paper, "On the Mammals of Madagascar," to the second, number {196} of the "Quarterly Journal of Science," from which we gather the following facts: As a general rule, it is found that the faunae and florae of such countries as are most nearly contiguous do most nearly resemble one another, while, on the other hand, those tracts of land which are furthest asunder are inhabited by most different forms of animal and vegetable life. Now, Madagascar, with the Mascarene islands, is a strange exception to the rule; for the forms of mammalia which are found in these islands are very different from the forms which occur in the contiguous coast of Africa, although the channel between Madagascar and the continent is in one place not more than 200 miles: "The numerous mammals of the orders Ruminantia, Pachydermata, and Proboscidea, so characteristic of the Ethiopian fauna, are entirely absent from Madagascar. The same is the case with the larger species of carnivora which are found throughout the African continent, but do not extend into Madagascar.

Again, the highly organized types of Quadrumana which prevail in the forests of the mainland are utterly wanting in the neighboring island; their place being there occupied by several genera of the inferior family of _Lemurs_," Dr. Sclater shows that this anomaly is not confined to the orders already enumerated, but that similar irregularities prevail to a greater or lesser extent in every part of the mammalian series, and that, in short, the anomalies presented to us of the forms of life prevalent in the island of Madagascar "are so striking that claims have been put forward in its favor to be considered as a distinct primary geographical region of the earth."

Dr. Sclater also draws attention to the very curious fact, "quite unparalleled, as far as is. .h.i.therto known, in any other fauna, that nearly two-thirds of the whole number of known species of the mammals of this island are members of one peculiar group of Quadrumana." The family of _Lemuridae_ contains no less than eight generic types, all different from those found in Africa and India, although this group is also represented in Africa by the abnormal form _Perodicticus_, and in India by _Nycticebus_ and _Loris_, two allied genera. The celebrated Aye Aye (_Chiromys Madagascariensis_), a specimen of which anomalous animal is at present in the new monkey-house in the Zoological Society's Gardens, Regent's Park, is considered by Prof. Owen to be more nearly allied to some of the African Galagos than to any other form of animal. Of insectivora, the genera _Centetes, Ericulus_, and _Echinogale_, small animals resembling hedge-hogs in outward appearance, are thought to be most nearly allied to an American genus.

From the anomalies in the mammalian fauna of this island. Dr. Sclater arrives at the following deductions, which, however, as they are based upon the hypothesis of the derivative origin of species, cannot at present be deemed altogether conclusive:

"1. Madagascar has never been connected with Africa, _as it at present exists_. This would seem probable from the absence of certain all-pervading Ethiopian types in Madagascar, such as _Antelope, Hippopotamus Felis_, etc. But, on the other hand, the presence of _Lemurs_ in Africa renders it certain that Africa as it at present exists, contains land that once formed part of Madagascar.

"2. Madagascar and the Mascarene islands (which are universally acknowledged to belong to the same category) must have remained for a long epoch separated from every other part of the globe, in order to have acquired the many peculiarities now exhibited in their mammal fauna--_e.g._, _Lemur, Chiromys, Eupleres, Centetes,_ etc.--to be elaborated by the gradual modification of pre-existing forms.

"3. Some land-connection must have existed in former ages between Madagascar and India, whereon the original stock, whence the present Lemuridae of Africa, Madagascar, and India, are descended, flourished.

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"4. It must be likewise allowed that some sort of connection must also have existed between Madagascar and land which now forms part of the new world--in order to permit the derivation of the _Centetinae_ from a common stock with the _Solenodon_, and to account for the fact that the Lemuridae, as a body, are certainly more nearly allied to the weaker forms of American monkeys than to any of the Simiidae of the old world.

"The anomalies of the mammal fauna of Madagascar can best be explained by supposing that, anterior to the existence of Africa in its present shape, a large continent occupied parts of the Atlantic and Indian oceans, stretching out toward (what is now) America on the west, and to India and its islands on the east; that this continent was broken up into islands, of which some became amalgamated with the present continent of Africa, and some possibly with what is now Asia--and that in Madagascar and the Mascarene islands we have existing relics of this great continent."

We fain would have lingered on the natural products of this interesting island, to drink of the refres.h.i.+ng liquid furnished by the traveller-tree, and to admire the sago palms and other vegetable forms, but s.p.a.ce forbids our dwelling longer on the natural productions of the tropics. [Footnote 30] We could have spoken of the aspects of tropical nature as it appears in Borneo, Java, Sumatra, and other islands of the Pacific ocean, but we must stop. We ought not, however, to conclude these gleanings without a brief notice of Dr.

Hartwig's popular book, whose t.i.tle we have placed at the head of this article. There are those who look with contempt on popular science of all kinds, and regard with undisguised aversion such compilations as the one before us. We do not share these feelings in the least degree; on the contrary, we welcome most heartily such introductions to the study of natural history. True, they may be sometimes of little scientific value, but they are very useful stepping-stones to something more solid. They are more especially intended for the young, but those of mature years may derive much profit by a perusal of many of these works, and even the naturalist may read them with pleasure and instruction. The numerous beautifully ill.u.s.trated and carefully compiled works on natural history, such as the book before us, together with "The Sea and its Living Wonders," by the same writer, with Routledge's admirable "Natural History," and several of the Christian Knowledge Society's publications, which have appeared within the last few years, are an encouraging sign of the growing interest which the rising generation takes in the study of the great Creator's works, and we heartily wish them "G.o.d-speed."

[Footnote 30: In our own territory of the Seych.e.l.les Islands, 4 to 5 S., 300 miles N. E. of the great island Just alluded to, we see one of the strangest of vegetable productions, the double cocoa-nut, or Lodoicea, which was fully described by Mr. Ward in the "Journal of the Linnean Society, 1864:" "The shortest period before the tree puts forth its buds is 30 years, and 100 years must elapse before it attains its full growth. One plant in the garden at Government House, planted 15 years ago, is quite in its infancy, about 16 feet in height, but with no stem yet visible, the long leaves shooting from, the earth like the Traveler's Palm (_Urania specioea_), and much resembling it in shape, but much larger. Unlike the cocoa-nut trees, which bend to every gale and are never quite straight, the coco-de-mer trees are as upright as iron pillars. At the ago of 30 the trees first put forth blossoms. The female tree alone produces the nut, and is 6 feet shorter than the male, which attains a height of 100 feet. From fructification to full maturity a period of nearly 10 years elapses." But the remarkable point is the arrangement of the roots, unlike any other tree. "The base of the trunk is of a bulbous form, and this bulb fits into a natural bowl or socket about 2-1/2 feet in diameter and 1-1/2 foot in depth, narrowing to the bottom. This bowl is pierced with hundreds of small oval holes about the size of thimbles, with hollow tubes corresponding on the outside, through which the roots penetrate the ground on all sides, never, however, becoming attached to the bowl, their partial elasticity affording an almost imperceptible, but very necessary _play_ to the parent stem when struggling against the force of violent gales. This bowl is of the same substance as the sh.e.l.l of the nut, only much thicker. As far as can be ascertained, it never rots or wears out. It has been found quite perfect and entire in every respect 60 years after the tree has been cut down. At Curiense many sockets are still remaining which are known to have belonged to trees cut down by the first settlers in the Island (1742)." One of these sockets is to be seen in the Museum of woods at Kew.]

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From Chamber's Journal.

WINTER SIGNS.

Links upon the forehead come-- Strokes alike of time and grief, Branches from the heart beneath That will never bear a leaf.

Come the summer, come the spring, Still they keep their wintry hue; Deepening, stretching o'er the brow.

Shadows lift them into view.

Straight and crooked, right and left.

On the strong and on the weak-- Upward to the h.o.a.ry head.

Downward to the hollow cheek.

Shadows from the life within, Tarrying ere they pa.s.s away, Plant these stems of sorrow there, Growing in the night and day.

Light that fills the eye afresh From some inward moving grace, Casting from it, as a sun.

Quiet rays upon the face--

Makes these ruts of time appear Winding, widening in their s.p.a.ce, Drawing loving eyes and thoughts All their history to trace.

Whilst upheaved by a smile, Radiant in the breast of light, These eternal scores of grief Tell of many an inner night.

Stories come up from their roots.

Half unfolded in their course, Showing how a hundred pangs Long ago became their source.

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