Darjeeling, warned me that I should find Kohima to be very much like Darjeeling over again. This I find to be so. Nearly all the plants which grow both in Sikkim and Khasia appear to grow here (the place is exceedingly rich botanically). Besides these, there is a large percentage of Sikkim plants not known in Khasia, and a small percentage of Khasia plants not known in Sikkim, as well as a small percentage of new species. Also the country here, above 5,000 feet, being nearly all jungle (the open grass only in small patches), the Sikkim plants altogether predominate in numbers of individuals and make Kohima resemble Darjeeling and not Shillong. In marching upon Kohima for miles together the road was so like that from Darjeeling to Mongpo that I could not have been sure I was not in Sikkim, and the vegetation from Kohima to the top of Jakpho closely resembles that from the little Rangit to the top of Tonglo. I understand that thirty miles south of Kohima I shall enter open grass and the Khasia flora, and that the change from jungle to grass is sudden. It is also to be recollected that the highest point in the Khasia hills is under 6,800 feet, and that therefore we could hardly expect Khasia plants between 7,000 and 9,980 feet here. Still it is remarkable that we are on one range of hills here with Khasia not 100 miles off, while Darjeeling is not only 200 miles off, with the whole Brahmaputra valley between, but Shillong comes almost in a line between here and Darjeeling; yet the whole character of Kohima is totally unlike Khasia and very much like Darjeeling. The country here may be divided much as you divide Sikkim, into, first, the region of cultivation 2,000 to 5,000 feet, second, low level jungle below 2,000 feet, third, the upper level jungle from 5,000 to 8,800 feet and, fourth, the small peak of Jakpho, 8,500 to 9,500 feet, where a sub-Alpine flora with rhododendrons just comes in. The rocks here are much as in Sikkim but more disintegrated. The upper levels (above 5,000 feet) may be about as steep as the slopes in Sikkim at 5,000 to 6,000 feet, but the cultivated regions at 2,000 to 5,000 feet are much less steep, more open valleys with evidently richer soil than in Sikkim. The land is all terraced and irrigated and covered with a heavy crop of strong growing rice. It looks like the margin of the plain of North Italy near the lakes. There is also the common hill rice as in Sikkim, The Naga hills are as Sikkim, but with a vastly ameliorated climate, warmer, drier, with much less rain. The Nagas are now very much what the Khasias were when you were among them, but the population here is much
larger than in Khasia and Sikkim.”After describing some points in the botany which I need not quote, Mr. Clarke goes on to say:
set of the Kohima species in flower in October, but if for no other reason I cannot do this for want of paper. Transport here is exceedingly difficult, the approach to Kohima is admitted to be the worst 1 line 1 in India, the sixty-four miles through the Nambre swamp forests often take the Government convoys ten to twenty days, and the road is decorated with broken carts and the bones of bullocks, and sanded sometimes with Government grain. In the richer soil and warmer climate of Kohima, many plants grow unusually large. One plant here is the Kohima thistle, which is abundant and grows fifteen to twenty feet—I am told in places twenty-five feet high. It is, I believe, only a form of the Sikkim Cnicus , like our European Cnicus eriophorus with yellow flowers. This is in fact a very rich country, and not a little place like Sikkim or Khasia; there must be 200 miles of it nearly all
equally good.”This description of Kohima shows that the soil and the presence of forest have a much greater influence on the vegetation than the mere elevation or distance.
