FLORA OF TIBET OR HIGH ASIA. 213 
thibetica, Abelia angustifolia, Lonicera thibetica, L. trichosantha, 
Aster batangensis, Gnaphalium thibeticum, Rhododendron Prin- 
cipts, Rk. primuleflorum, R. nigro-punctatum, Primula vittata, 
P. leptopoda, P. diantha, P. Henrict, Androsace bisulca, Schisto- 
caryum ciliare, Pedicularis batangensis, P. microphyton, Incar- 
villea Principis, I. Bonvaloti, Fritillaria lophophora, and Aletris 
lanuginosa. This wealth of new species is sufficient to prove 
that we are outside of the Tibetan region, and on the borders of 
the rich flora of Western China. 
VEGETATION | 
As illustrated by the various Tibetan Collections. 
The combined collections comprise 283 species, belonging to 
119 genera and forty-one natural orders. A very large pro- 
portion of the species are perennial herbaceous plants having 
long, often very long, thick tap-roots; almost no stem, which 
may be either unbranched, bearing a single or compound inflor- 
escence, or very shortly-branched, bearing several inflorescences ; 
a rosette of leaves, when unbranched, commonly lying flat on 
the ground; and an almost sessile inflorescence nestling in the 
centre of the rosette of leaves. When the stems are branched 
the leaves are usually very small and numerous. Plants of this 
description are usually very thinly scattered, and some indeed 
are so rare that they were only observed in a single locality, 
or collected by only one of our travellers. 
SAUSSUREA. 
The genus Saussurea * (Composit) will serve well to illustrate 
this type of plant. This geuus has been selected because it is 
highly characteristic and more numerously represented in species 
than any other genus within our area. Including the very 
numerous recent discoveries in Western China and Central Asia, 
Saussurea now contains upwards of one hundred described 
species, exhibiting a very great variety in habit, foliage, and 
inflorescence. They are by far the most numerous in Central 
and Northern Asia, but they extend all round the northern 
hemisphere, chiefly inhabiting mountain regious. One species, 
S. alpina, inhabits Great Britain, and it has nearly the same 
* A selection of Tibetan species of Saussurea was exhibited at the Society’s 
rooms when this paper was read. 
