India, still rich in flora, is nowhere so prolific in this as in the eastern and western Himalaya, where the slopes and valleys present remarkable contrasts in elevation, humidity and temperature. All year round the hills are steeped in a tangle of blossom and verdure. The valleys, winding down from snowy heights and carrying streams from the snows to the scorching foothills, are full of vegetation which seldom loses its vivid green.
This beautiful panorama, with a wealth of Himalayan flowers, ia captured here in an informative and expressive text written by a well-known novelist and short story writer. The pictorial section of this book presents nearly all forms of vegetation including flowers representative of the Himalaya from Kashmir to Bhutan. From the tiny Primula, which Frank Smythe discovered and rhapsodized about, to the Brahm Kamal, the sacred lotus of Shiva found only at high attitudes and the Rhododendron which majestically frames the snow-covered peaks, this book tries to present a fair samplings of the wild flowers and other forms of vegetation that are strewn across this mighty mountain range. Each flower is listed by its common name followed by the corresponding botanical names of the species and the family.
