COLLECTIONS OF DRIED PLANTS FROM TIBET. 103 
right in stating that no flowering-plants had previously been 
-collected at so high a level as some of these. It is true that 
General Strachey long ago expressed (Journ. R. Geogr. Soe. xxi. 
p- 77) his conviction that flowering-plants existed up to 19,000 
feet ; and Hooker and Thomson (‘ Flora Indica,’ i. p. 220) state 
that, “though plants may be gathered up to 19,000 feet, vege- 
tation is excessively scanty, and only found by the margins of 
rills from melting snow.” And they continue :—‘“ The flora of 
these regions includes some plants of great interest, as Papaver 
nudicaule, Oxygraphis glacialis, Ranunculus hyperboreus, Tarax- 
acum officinale, Delphinium Brunonianum, and Berberis uli- 
cina.” Then follows a list of high-level plants, with indications 
of those observed above 17,000 feet; but as a matter of fact I 
find no plant actually recorded from a greater altitude than 
18,000 feet, either in the introduction or in the body of the 
work. At p. 227 of the same work the genera Alsine, Draba, 
Androsace, Oxytropis, Sedum, Saxifraga, and others are said to 
ascend to 18,000 feet. In the privately printed list of plants 
collected by Strachey and Winterbottom in Kumaon and Western 
Tibet, and partly reproduced here, pp. 125 and 126, only two, 
Trachypodium Roylei and Nepeta tibetica, are recorded from so 
great an altitude as 17,500 feet. Dr. T. Thomson (‘ Travels,’ 
p. 149) mentions that he found an Arenaria, a Stellaria, and two 
cruciferous plants at the summit of Lanak Pass, an elevation of 
18,100 feet. 
Mr. Thorold’s collection consists of about 115 species belonging 
to 69 genera and 28 natural orders. With few exceptions, the 
specimens, although often limited to a single small plant, are 
sufficient for identification or description. Captain Bower is 
reported as having stated that for a period of five months the 
party never encamped at a lower altitude than 15,000 feet ; and 
throughout the country traversed during those five months not 
a single tree was seen. But that statement, judging from 
Mr. Thorold’s collection, which was made at altitudes of 15,000 
to 19,000 feet, gives no idea of the nature of the vegetation. Not 
only were there no trees, there were no shrubs, and there were 
no plants above a foot high, and very few above 3 inches out 
of the ground. Indeed, as I shall show you presently, many 
of the specimens are not more than an inch high. I have 
already mentioned that this collection is a most remarkable one. 
It is remarkable as representing, so far as Mr. Thoroid’s mani- 
festly careful investigations went, the entire phauerogamic flora 
