Page:Provincial geographies of India (Volume 4).djvu/100

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FORESTS AND FLORA
[ch. ix

where. On many mountain sides and upland plateaux are wild growths of temperate climes, oaks, yews, chestnuts, walnuts, crab-apples, pears, cherries, oranges, lemons, citrons, mulberries, figs, peaches, strawberries, roses, ivy, mistletoe and holly.

Lichens, mosses, and ferns abound. Of flowering plants, over 700 species are enumerated by General Collett, principally in the Shan States; among them Ranunculus, Clematis, Viola, Swertia, bushy Lespedeza, large flowering Asters, and showy Ipomoea. Of special note are Schinia Wallichii, with white camellia-like flowers; the wonderful Rosa gigantea, "particularly conspicuous, climbing over tall forest trees, from the top of which the long pendent branches, covered with very large white flowers, hang down in rich profusion"; Lonicera Hildcbrandiana, "a conspicuous shrub with large, dark, glossy leaves and fine crimson flowers, seven inches long, and by far the largest of any known species of honeysuckle"; a tall Lespedeza Pranii, bearing "large dense panicles of fine blue flowers"; Codonopsis convolvulacea, with "beautiful dark blue convolvulus-like flowers"; Ipomoea nana, with flowers "large of a beautiful deep purple"; Colquhounia elegans, most beautiful of Labiatae with dark red and pale salmon-coloured flowers[1].

Anemone, mimosa, geranium, delphinium, magnolia, gardenia, campanula, primula, jasmine, gentians, lilies, also adorn this Paradise.

  1. General Collett. Journal of the Linnaean Society, xxviii.