FLORA OF TIBET OR HIGH ASTA. 237 
Tue Uservun Prants or Treer. 
In a sense, almost all the plants of Tibet are useful, if only as 
food for animals; but some are injurious, or at least one is 
injurious, to animals ; and it is of importance to know what this 
iss Both Rockhill (* Mongolia and Tibet,’ p- 139) and Malcolm 
(Geogr. Journ. ix. 1897, p. 216) mention a “ poisonous weed,” 
which in each instance cost them the lives of several mules in 
one night. It is mentioned as though it were well known, yet 
we have not succeeded in identifying it with any of the plants 
collected. Possibly it was Stipa sibirica, a grass which is 
injurious to animals at a certain stage of growth; but it is a 
mechanical irritant rather than a poison. By useful plants, 
however, we mean those directly useful to the traveller, either 
for food or fuel. The only really valuable plant for food, or 
perhaps we should say the only one much used, because there 
was no choice, was a kind of onion, Allium Semenovi, which was 
eaten by several of the travellers, and Wellby and Malcolm nearly 
lived on it for several days. Happily it was abundant in the 
country where it was most needed. The bulbs of A. senescens 
and A. Jacquemontii are also eaten. 
The following plants are noted as being used as vegetables ; 
in some cases it is the leaves which are eaten, in others the 
roots:—Braya uniflora, Crambe cordifolia, Peucedanum Mal- 
colmit, Saussurea Thoroldii, S. tangutica, and Polygonum 
sibiricum. Most likely other plants are used for food, such, for 
instance, as the species of Taraxacum and Crepis. Concerning 
rhubarb, there is nothmg to add to the notes in the “ Itineraries’ 
and in the “ Enumeration.” 
A few native names appear on the labels and in the narratives 
of some of the travellers. Dama=Caragana pygmea, of which 
we have seen no specimen from within our limits, except one 
collected by Strachey and Winterbottom in Gugé. Kumbuk= 
Peucedanum Malcolmii. Hann=Saussurea Thoroldii. Cumt- 
chen= Artemisia macrocephala. Tami is the name applied to 
various shrubby species of Artemisia, according to Schlagintweit, 
who also states that Eurotia is called Burzu, On the authority 
vf Deasy and Pike, Zanacetum tibeticum bears the name ot 
Boortze “in Tibet. The name is variously spelt by ditterent 
travellers, and it is probable that this name is applied to more 
