210 MR. W. B. HEMSLEY ON THE 
“ Alongside the rivers, yet rarely, are meadows gay with 
Stipa pedalis, Elymus, Comarum, Nitraria, Clematis orientalis, 
Allium, Iris, Astragalus, Statice, Rheum spiciforme, etc. 
“At the base of the mountains to the north, as well as in the 
Tang-la Range towards the south, are swamps filled with very 
dense tufts of Kobresia tibetica. 
“ All this peculiar Tibetan flora—as it were a ‘very cold’ 
repetition of the Alpine flora of Amdo—does not seem to cross a 
diagonal line drawn between Tengri lake and Odontala (96° 
30' and 35°), for no mention is made, at least by our travellers, 
of any species common to this flora and to that of Amdo, to the 
west of that line, where the region is drier and more sterile, 
and a large area seems to be uninhabited. Other species, endemic 
in Tibet, in part at least, do cross that line. Hence it seems 
proved that Northern Tibet may be divided into two natural 
provinces according to the distribution of the plants. The 
western part is poor in species, and in every respect reminds 
one of the highest regions of the Himalaya and Tibet Minor. 
The eastern part, Tangut properly so-called, relatively abounds 
in species which flourish in the deep valleys of the eastern 
frontier bordering Amdo, and not a few cross beyond Amdo, 
entering Eastern Khansu, Northern Szechuen, or even the Alps 
of the Shansi and Chihli Provinces, for example, Ajuga lupulina, 
Anaphalis Hancockii, and Stellaria infracta.” 
Plants of the Gilghit-Chitral Expedition, 1885-1886. 
The collection of dried plants, made on this expedition by 
Dr. G. M. Giles, was presented to Kew, and a rough list of them 
was published in Col. Sir W. 8. A. Lockhart’s Confidential 
Report, together with some interesting notes by Dr. Giles. 
Much care had been devoted to the collecting and labelling of 
the 500 species, or thereabouts, and it was a pity, as Dr. Giles 
remarks, that the geographical and biological questions were not 
worked out; but pressure of work at Kew prevented anything 
beyond approximate determinations of the species being made. 
Reference is made here to the collection more with the intention 
of making known its existence and partial publication in an 
almost inaccessible report, than for purposes of comparison. 
But some of Dr. Giles’s observations deserve reproduction :— 
“ As I have already remarked in my other reports, the district 
over which the Mission worked is an extremely barren one. 
