160 MR. W. B. HEMSLEY ON THE 
In 1897-8 Captain Deasy made another journey, or journeys, 
in Turkestan and Tibet. The plants collected on these expe- 
ditions were presented to the British Museum; but two or three 
new Tibetan species published in the ‘ Journal of Botany’ have 
been added to our list. 
In his Narrative he says very little about the vegetation, or 
absence of vegetation, generally; but the following extract 
relating to the country near his most north-easterly point in 
Tibet, Kara Sai, is interesting as a sample of the local con- 
ditions :— 
“In the lower part of the Tolan Khoja valley there is plenty 
of excellent grass and water, but in the upper part, known as 
Sarok Tuz (Yellow Salt), there is no grass, but only a limited 
supply of burtza and not much water. At the head of this 
valley lies a pass of about 16,500 ft., a very easy and compara- 
tively low one, which may be considered the natural boundary 
between Turkestan and the great Tibetan plateau. Looking 
forward from a hill near this pass, not a trace of vegetation is to 
be seen: and it was not till the western side of the small and 
irregularly shaped lake, called Shor Kul, was reached that any 
grass was obtained...... Between the lake and the Kuen Luen 
range the country is absolutely barren. At the first camp 
beyond Shor Kul there was little or no vegetation, so the 
remaining sacks of chopped straw were issued. Here it was again 
necessary to dig for water, which was by no means sufficient for 
all the animals. However they quenched their thirst the next 
day, when the most easterly tributary of the Kiria river was 
reached. This tributary and the next are undoubtedly the 
smallest of the principal affluents of the Kiria river, and flow 
through a country devoid of all vegetation.” 
The botanical collection of the first expedition was almost 
entirely made by Mr. Arnold Pike. Indeed Captain Deasy gives 
him credit for the whole. It was presented to Kew in February, 
1897; and a list of the determinations was sent to Captain 
Deasy in April of the same year, but various circumstances have 
hitherto prevented the publication of a full account of the plants, 
though, as already mentioned, they were included in an exhibition 
and a preliminary paper on the Tibetan Flora read before the 
Linnean Society on April 19th, 1900. The collection comprises 
nearly a hundred species, but contains very little that ws 
previously unknown. Senecio ($ Cremanthodium) Deasy?, Hemsl. 
