The palm, the tree fern, and bamboo here flourish in free luxuriance.

Higher up appears the vegetation of the temperate zone, represented by forests of gigantic oaks of various species, by sycamores, pines, walnut, and chestnut trees.

Still higher are the rhododendrons, the birches, and heaths; succeeded by a region of herbaceous vegetation--by slopes, and even table-plains, covered with rich grasses.

Stretching onward and upward to the line of the eternal snow, there are encountered the _Cryptogamia_--the lichens and mosses of Alpine growth--just as they are found within the limits of the polar circle; so that the traveller, who passes from the plains of India towards the high ridges of the Himalayas, or who climbs out of one of the deeper valleys up to some snow-clad summit that surmounts it, may experience within a journey of a few hours' duration every degree of climate, and observe a representative of every species of vegetation known upon the face of the earth! The Himalayas are not uninhabited.

On the contrary, one considerable kingdom (Nepaul), with many petty states and communities (as Bhotan, Sikhim, Gurwhal, Kumaon, and the famed Cashmere), are found within their boundaries--some enjoying a sort of political independence, but most of them living under the protection either of the Anglo-Indian empire, on the one side, or that of China upon the other.