Page:Gazetteer of the province of Oudh ... (IA cu31924073057345).pdf/152

144 KHE green shisham trees (Dalbergia sissoo), above them masses of khair (Aca- cia catechu), with bare branches and stiff grey rugged trunks, and be- yond them again the sál forests --masses of tall slender straight stems, the young trees bursting out from the very root with little bunches of green leaves, the old trees shooting up for sixty or seventy feet without a branch or bend. In addition to the forest there are fifty-five square miles Where there is of groves very evenly distributed over the whiole district. no forest, as in Kheri, they are spacious and numerous, covering five per cent. of the area; where forest adjoins, as in Palia and Kbairigarh, the arti- ficial groves are not onc-half per cent of the total area. The groves consist generally of mango, and a few of shishain. Mahna is hardly grown at all, not being used in Kheri for the manufacture of spirit, but it is found wild in the forests, The fertility of the soil is so uniform that only thirty-seven square miles, or little more than one per cent. of the total area, are recorded as barren in the survey records. Much of this also is covered with bruslı- wood and babúl trees useful for fuel. The following is a list of the more common trees and plants found in the Kheri district :- Acacia arabica (Babui.) Dalbergia latifolia (Shislam ) Acacia catechu (Khair.) Enıblica officinalis (Aonla.) Egle murmelos (Bel.) Mangifera indica (Am, Mango.) Bassia latifolia (Mabua.) Nelubium speciosum (Kanwal, Kewal, Butea frondoga (Dhák, Palás.) Latus.) Calotropis Hamiltoni (Madár.) Salınalia malabarica (Semal, cotton-tree.) Catbartocarpus Roxburghii. Shorea robusta (Sakhu. Sál.) (Amaltás.) Tamarindus indica (Iuli, Tamarind.) Cedrelis taona (Tun) Terminalia tormcotosa (Asín.) Climate. The climate of Kheri is reckoned by the natives very mala- rious beyond the Ul, and salubrious south of that river. The heat is less than that of the surrounding districts. The mean annual temperature during the last five years has been 79:60; but the average beat at 2 P. M., the hottest period of the day in May 1870, the hottest month, was only 94 ; the average for the province being 104. In the sun's rays the tem- perature reaches 137. The following tables of temperature and account of the diseases common to Kheri have been furnished by an officer of the district, but in some respects they are not quite reliable-: Abstract of meteorological register for 1871, STANDARD THERMOMETER IN SHADE. MONT, Remarks. Mean. Highest and dates. Lowest and dates January 90 62.0 February 70-6 let and 31st 716 11th 770 29th and 30th 93 0 4th 490 19th 64.0 4th and 5th 66'0 March P 796