ay here observe that almost all plants
with red flowers, at least in this quarter, are acid: the Assamese always
appear to expect this, the proofs are Loranthus, Ceratostemma, and
Begonia, in which red is generally a predominant colour.

Antrophyllum I noticed about Yen; towards Yen, I diverged from the path
to visit the place whence the stones are procured, which the Mishmees use
as flints for striking lights: this stone is found on the S. Western face
of the mountain: the stones or noduli are frequently sub-crystalline, and
are imbedded in a sort of micaceous frangible rock: they are very common,
of very different sizes, with glassy fracture; the best are hard; the bad
easily frangible, their weight is great. The inclination of this bed is
considerable; overlying it at an inclination of 45 degrees, is the grey
quartzose rock which forms the chief part, and perhaps nearly the whole,
of the mountain. The Mishmee name for the noduli is _Mpladung_.

In the jungle at Yen occurs a huge Palm evidently Caryota, foliis maximis
supra decompositis; the diameter of the trunk is 1.5 to 2 feet. It is
said to die after flowering: the natives use the central lax structures
as food. The Yen Gam promises to send me specimens to-morrow. The Palms
I have hitherto seen are Wallichia, one or two Calami: Wallichioidia
trunco 5-10 pedali, and a Phaenicoidea, but this I only saw at the foot
of the mountains near Laee Panee, and the small Areca common about
Negrogam. The name of the large Palm in Assamese is _Bura Sawar_. All
the plants common to these and the Cossiya mountains, with one or two
exceptions, flower much earlier here, those being all past flowering
which I gathered in flower on the Cossiya hills in November last. This
is owing to the greater cold, and the consequent necessity for the plants
flowering at an earlier and warmer period.

A species of ruminant, or, according to the native account, a species of
Pachydermata called the _Gan Pohoo_, occurs on Thuma-thaya. At the
summit of the mountain the ground was in one place rooted up, the
Mishmees said, by this animal, which they describe as a large Hog, but
which I should rather take to be a kind of Deer.

_Nov_. _28th_.--Returned to Deeling. At the commencement of the
principal descent we gathered Betula and another Cupulifera, both
moderately sized trees. Anthestina arundinacea, is about this place very
common, and an Andropogon, Culmis ramosis which I had previously