J32 ME. c. B. Clarke's botai^ical obsertatiojs"s 



I have been up Jalipho ; I went to tlie new summit, which is 

 ascertained to be fifty feet higher than the old, and to the old 

 summit also. The ascent is from " Kegwima/' alt. 5800 feet, 

 a village ten miles from Kohima. The ascent would thus appear 

 4000 feet, but in starting from Kegwima you go one and a half 

 miles down hill to begin with, so that the whole pull up is about 

 5000 feet. It is a very easy ascent, no mountaineering at all, and 

 you can get about anywhere ; you are not confined to the path, nor 

 is there a very grand path. I went up after a thirty hours' rain, 

 and the lower half was very slippery (all this shaly Kohima 

 mud) ; the top 1500 feet is excellent going ; small Ehododendron 

 trees with ferns below. I describe the ascent at some length, 

 because you may have heard that it is a difficult or dangerous 

 one. As a matter of fact it is made by many persons who 

 do not profess to be mountaineers ; and it is reckoned that from 

 Kegwima it is four hours' marcb up. At the same time when I say 

 the ascent is easy^ I mean as to mountaineering; you will know 

 what an ascent of 5000 feet up Tonglo with no well-used j)ath 

 implies, and Jakpho is still finer exercise (the lower part) from 

 the slippery ground, "Up to 9000 feet the vegetation on Jakpho 

 is much as on Tonglo j there is one curious difterence. You 

 may recollect that all round Darjeeling from GOOO-8000 feet the 

 ground under the forest trees is covered with a grove oi Lomarict 

 (§ Plagiogyria) pyaiophjUa. On Jakpho, from 7000-9000 feet the 

 ground under the forest is covered by the closely allied Lomaria 

 (§ Plagiogyrid) glcnica ; very densely covered, so as at this season 

 to exclude nearly everything else. Lomaria glmica we reckon a 

 rare fern in Khasia j here it is very plentiful and large. The 

 Ehododendrons come in strong at 8500 feet ; I only picked scrapa 

 of i?A. arloreum, Falconeri^ and about four other species. They 

 were not in flower of course, nor was the fruit near ripe ; and I 

 fancy Dr. Watt (who was on Jakpho in May) got all that is to 

 be got ; so I paid little attention to the Khododendrons. The 

 ridge on tlie very top, connecting the old and new summits, is 

 clothed with dwarf bamboo (I suppose an Ai-undinaria) about 

 six feet high, dense, and dripping wet. Just at the old summit 

 where there is some open rock, and on one side a drop of 2000 

 feet at an angle of 80°, I collected several species (besides the 

 ferns above mentioned by name), viz. : 

 Arundinella (a large species). 

 Juncus (monhranaceiis, or an adjacent species). 



