™y] 
v 
FLORA OF TIBET OR HIGH ASIA. 145 
can be used for fuel are the burtza and the Myricaria germanica 
var. prostrata, the roots and stems of which are both woody. 
For long intervals, however, neither of these plants was found. 
“It is interesting to note the frequent comparatively large 
underground fleshy stems and roots, showing the provision made 
by nature to store up nutriment for the plant below the surface of 
the soil, in a climate where the temperature even in midsummer 
falls at night to a few degrees above or below freezing. The 
nutritive value of the grass must be very great, from the 
beginning of July to the end of October, as the herds and flocks 
of the nomads testify. The plants requiring special names in 
the catalogue will be named hereafter.” 
W. B. Hemsley’s preliminary summary of the botanical collec- 
tion is perhaps worth inserting here :— 
“The botanical collection submitted by Dr. Thorold to Kew 
for determination consists entirely of flowering plants, and com- 
prises about 115 species, of which twenty probably are undescribed, 
or at least unrepresented, in the Kew Herbarium. But until 
they are critically worked out the number of novelties must 
remain uncertain, and there was no time to do this previous to 
Dr. Thorold’s return to India. Apart from the number of 
novelties, however, this is a highly interesting collection, repre- 
senting as nearly as possible, as Dr. Thorold assures us, the 
complete Phanerogamic Flora of the region explored, at altitudes 
of 15,000 to 19,000 ft. and chiefly above 17,000 ft. As may 
be seen from the accompanying rough list, many of the species 
are the same as those first discovered some forty years ago by 
Dr. Thomson in a somewhat higher latitude and ten to fifteen 
degrees farther west. Most of these are only now collected for 
the second time. 
“The plants are nearly all characteristic of a very dry climate, 
consisting largely of exceedingly dwarf herbaceous perennials 
with large root-stocks, evidently often of considerable age. 
Ephedra vulgaris [correctly E. Gerardiana], from an elevation of 
16,500 ft., is the only truly shrubby plant, and this, judging from 
the specimens, does not exceed six inches in height, even if it 
attain so much. Quite a large proportion of the species do not 
rise more than one to three inches above the surface of the soil, 
and some of them not more than half an inch. No fewer than 
twenty-eight Natural Orders are represented in this small collec- 
tion, yet the great bulk of the species belong to about half-a-dozen 
Orders. Thus, the Composite contribute twenty-two species, 
