Seasons. only seasons which can be properly recognized are the rainy, the cool, and the hot. The boundaries between them are not very exactly defined, because the rains, which may be considered as the commencement of the year, do not begin, even on the same side of the continent, at the same period. On the Malabar coast, for instance, they are retarded in proceeding northwards, and have copiously flooded some districts at least a month before they begin to fall in others. As India lies wholly on tin! north side of the equator, the cool and the hot seasons should correspond nearly with our own winter and summer; but without entering too much into detail, and specifying the peculiarities of different districts, it is almost impossible to make any statement, in general terms, which would not mislead. The best mode of illustrating the seasons will therefore be to select a particular locality, and give a short description of its year. Calcutta being adopted for this purpose, the cycle will be as follows. After nearly a month of storms, connected with the setting in of the monsoon, the rains commence about the beginning of June, and continue, with occasional short intervals, till the middle of October. A brief stormy period ensues, and then, in November, the air having previously cleared up, the cool season begins. At first the weather is fair and pleasant, and the sky, generally free from clouds, is of a deep blue. In December, fogs become frequent towards evening, and continue unbroken till the morning sun disperses them Both in this month and in January, the thermometer ranges from 47° to 78°, but the air feels colder than the lower of these numbers might be expected to indicate. Cold but bracing winds from the north and west doubtless contribute to this result. In February, the thermometer begins to rise, and generally before it closes the hot season has commenced. During the three following months the heat continues to increase, but is greatly relieved by winds and storms till May, when an oppressive stillness prevails, at once unnerving the body and depressing the mind With this disagreeable month the season closes, and the annual cycle again begins.
Vegetable products. In heat and humidity, India possesses the two main agents of luxuriant vegetation. On its lower plains the most valuable plants of the tropics are indigenous or acclimatized, and on its loftier heights forests of the noblest trees, several of them of a peculiar type, furnish inexhaustible supplies of the finest timber, including the teak, which covers the rugged terraces of the Western Ghauts. Equally deserving of notice are the magnificent woody amphitheatres which rise successively on the Himalaya, till the limits of the vegetable kingdom are approached. Among the plants winch belong exclusively to India, or, while possessed in common with other countries, are so widely diffused over it as to form a leading feature in its botany, are the bamboo, which, though truly a grass, shoots up in one season to the height of 60 feet, and in another becomes so consolidated in its texture as to supply most of the ordinary, and some of the ornamental purposes to which timber is applied; palms in almost endless variety, including the cocoa-nut palm—the most useful of its class—the sago.
