372 DE. G. WATT ON THE VEGETATION OF 



basin as 3500 feet, whereas it never lies much below 7000 feet in 

 the First or southern region. The Third region extends from the 

 summits of the Second Range to the Indus valley. This may be 

 described as almost rainless, only a few inches falling throughout 

 the entire year. The greater part of this region, however, is under 

 snow for about seven months ; and consequently trees become ex- 

 tremely rare — herbaceous and annual vegetation rapidly clothing 

 the luxuriant hill-sides during the short summer. While the 

 atmosphere is very dry and mild, the soil is everywhere constantly 

 damp during summer, the hill-sides being permeated by streamlets 

 from the melting snow. I may here mention that the staple 

 product of cultivation in this region is barley. It is cultivated in 

 all the lower, rich, moist fields ; while wheat has assigned to it 

 the drier, exposed, poor, rocky soils. In fact, at high altitudes 

 wheat only will yield a good harvest. It is often cultivated in 

 Lahoul up to 14,000 feet. 



General Vegetable Features of the First Region. — "Without 

 enumerating all the plants found in these regions, and thereby 

 unnecessarily repeating mere lists of names, it may be remarked 

 that on leaving the plains, and for several miles, the loose 

 conglomerate and heavy clay-soil is clad with but scanty vege- 

 tation. There are no forests, except dense bamboo-jungles and 

 the usual subtropical bushes and herbaceous plants which accom- 

 pany the bamboo. At 2500 feet, in the shady hill-sides, scattered 

 clumps or small woods of Finns longifolia first appear, and 

 alternating with these open wooded expanses, chiefly of Cassia 

 Fistula, Acacia Catechu, Indigofera purpurea, and Grewia oppositi- 

 folia. At 3500 feet these disappear, and Albizzia Julibrissin and 

 A. odoratissima take their place, along with the extensive scandent 

 bushes Bauhinia Vahlii, and ultimately Eosa onoschata. About 

 the same altitude Berberis aristata, B. Lycium, and B. nepalensh 

 become very abundant, and continue till the higher pine-forests 

 are reached (about 7000 feet). It is remarkable how constant the 

 subtropical or, at most, warm temperate character of this region 

 is kept up from the plains high up into the mountains. Thus, for 

 example, out of 55 species of Ranunculaceae collected by me in 

 the Punjab Himalayas, only six occur south of the First Range ; 

 and these are all almost tropical. Two of them, for example, are 

 common to the plains, viz. Fanunculus sceleratus and F. muricatus ; 

 while the only other Fanunculus is so far subtropical as to be 

 almost confined to this region, viz. F. Icetus. It is curious that 



