130 MR. C. B. CLAUKk's BOTAyiCAL OBSEUVAXIONS 



yery fine, but one mat/'he SenecioSimonsii\ which I have not seen 

 for twelve years (I have no books nor even a li>st of genera), so 

 I cannot say. 



Take tlie Ferns : I have not one i\Q\x species liere yet. The middle- 

 level species are mostly those that grow loth in Sikkim and Khasia. 

 The upper-level species are all Sikkim species and ^'ikldm forms 



(there is oneexception noted below, viz. Lomaria glcmca) , Thus we 

 have Zasfrea pafentissima, Wall., the ''red-legged" Tonglo^My- 

 rinm ; Lastrea a^icifora^ var. noii-apicifloray abundant here at 9000 

 feet, exactly as at Tonglo at the same level. . Indeed, so like are 

 the Ferns to the Sikkim forms^ that I doubt whether Levinge 

 himself could say that a Kohima bundle did not come from Tonglo. 

 I have seen no tree-fern here except Asophila glabra in the low 

 levels. 



But besides this, I see here numerous plants which I regard as 

 representative Sikkim genera, and which 1 do not know from 

 Khasia; such are Fatrinia, Notocliwte^ Dohinwa^ Kalanclioe. The 



''tasselled" straw-yellow Cymhidhim is also here. 



Nearly all the Natural Orders tell the same tale as the Com- 

 melinacecB^ JiiihitSy and Se^iecio; Avhile, on the other hand, many 

 common KhasI plants are conspicuously absent. I have not seen 

 one plant here of Impatiens cJiinensis^ so common in Khasia, nor 

 of any of the other regular Khasi balsams. Nor have I seen here 

 one plant of any species of Lespedeza, so prominent in Khasia. 

 Nor have I seen here any one of the marked Khasi species of 



the Cheira Sacred Wood, or of the Shillong Hill. 



The pines, and in a degree tlie oaks, are an exception. The 

 . only two pines I have seen here are Khasi species, viz. 1, Finns 

 Khasiana, of which I have only seen some poor trees at 5500 feet 

 scattered in mixed tree-jungle at one spot ; and 2, Cephalotaocus 

 Mamiii, Hook. f. MS., which I see scattered at 5000-8000 feet, 

 and there are battered trees of it about 40 feet high on Jakpho 

 at 9000 feet alt. ^ 



As to the oaks, they are in such grand force here, both as to 

 species and individuals, that I have not nearly learnt them yet. 

 I have collected nearly the whole Sikkim series here (not Quercus 

 Andersoni) ; but there are also here several of the peculiarly Khasi 

 species, such as Quercus Griffithii^A, DC, and the allied sessile- 

 leaved Shillong species. There are here two oaks which I have 

 seen before in herbaria but never collected, and I cannot recol- 

 lect where they come from ; and I have one oak which I do not 



