Trees grow very generally in the Himalaya up to heights of 11,800 feet, and in most parts there are extensive forests covering the sides of the mountains at but a little distance below this limit. In Western Tibet, however, there is nothing at all corresponding to a forest. Apricot trees, wil lows, and poplars are frequently cultivated on a large scale ; poplars, indeed, are found at Mang nane in Gnari Khorsmn at a height of 13,457 feet, but they are the objects of the greatest care and attention to the lamas. On the northern side of the Kouen Lun are no trees at all, owing to the considerable height of the valleys. In the Andes they end at about 12,130 feet ; in the Alps, on an average, at 6400 feet, isolated specimens occurring above 7000 feet. The cultivation of grain coin cides in most cases with the highest permanently inhabited villages ; but the extremes of cultivated grain remain below the limit of permanent habita tion. In the Himalaya, cultivation of grain does not exceed 11,800 feet, in Tibet 14,700 feet, and in the Kouen Lun 9700 feet. For the Andes the limit is 11,800 feet. In the Alps, some of the extremes are found near Findeler, at a height of 6630 feet, but the mean is about 5000 feet. The upper mean limit of grass vegetation in the Himalaya is at 15,400 feet ; in Western Tibet, nearly the same level as for the highest pasture grounds, 16,500 feet, may be adopted. in the Kouen Lun grass is not found above 14,800 feet. Shrubs grow in the Himalaya up to 15,200 feet ; in Western Tibet as high as 17,000 feet ; and in one instance, at the Gunshankar, even to 17,313 feet. On the plateaux to the north of the Kara-korum, shrubs are found at 16,900 feet, and, which is more remarkable, they occasionally grow there in considerable quantities on spots entirely destitute of grass. As an example may be mentioned, amongst several others, the Vohab Chilgane plateau (16,419 feet), and A Bashmalgun (14,207 feet). In the Konen Lim the upper limit of shrubs does not exceed 12,700 feet. Above this height grass is still plentiful, and shrubs being here, as generally everywhere else, confined to a limit below the vegetation of grass, the range presents an essential contrast in this respect to the characteristic aspect of the Kara korum. The number of species of plants, as
well as the number of individuals, is exceedingly limited in the higher parts of the Kouen Lun. Lichens are completely wanting in the dry angular gravel covering the high plateau, and the slopes of the mountains in their neighbourhood.
Snow is a phenomenon which varies extremely with the latitude, longitude, humidity, and many local circumstances. In Ceylon and the Madras Peninsula, whose mountains attain 9000 feet, and where considerable tracts are elevated above 6000 to 8000 feet, snow has never been known to fall. On the Khassya mountains, which attain 7000 feet, and where a great extent of surface is above 5000 feet, snow seems to be unknown. In Sikkim snow annually falls at about 6000 feet elevation, in Nepal at 5000 feet, in Kamaon and Garhwal at 4000 feet, and in the extreme West Himalaya lower still. In the Sikkim Himalaya, the giant peaks of Donkiah, Kinchinghow (22,756 feet), and Kanchinjinga, the third greatest mountain of the world (28,156 feet), only surpassed in altitude by the Kara-korum (28,278 feet), and Mount Everest (29,002 feet), form the culminating points in this magnificently wooded region. The truly temperate vegetation supersedes the sub-tropical above 4000 to 6000 feet ; and the elevation at which this change takes place corresponds roughly with that at which the winter is marked by an annual fall of snow.—Outer Mountains of Kemaon, by Capt. Herbert, in Bl, As. Trans. xi. xii. ; Boyle, Ill. Hint. Bot. ; Hernz. Schl. ; MacG.; Campbell, pp. 47, 147-8, 168 ; Thomson's Travels; Hooker f. et Thorn. pp. 189, 190 ; Hooker, Him. Tour. ; Universal Review, No. 3, p. 359 ; Major Cunning-I ham ; Captain Strachey, Report, Brit. Association, 1847 ; Annals, Indian Administration ; and Blanford's Geology of India ; Trelawney' Saunders; Magnetic Survey of India, p. 9 ; Fraser's Himalaya Mountains ; H. II. Wilson's Hindoo Sects ; Imperial Gazetteer.