202 BOTANICAL INFORMATION. 
the Nübra Valley (from which I now write), with the object of 
trying to cross the mountains to the north east, to reach the source 
of the Shayük in a lake, called by Vigne, the ‘ Ndbra Chu;’ but I 
found the distance so much greater than I had anticipated, and 
the state of the weather so very cloudy, and snow threatening, 
that after visiting the hot springs at Pänânikle, described by 
Moorcroft, I gave up the attempt, and determined to proceed at 
once down the Shayük to Eskardo. The Nübra Valley is exactly 
like the part of the Shayük I have seen, a broad, flat, gravelly 
plain, even more densely jungled than the former wherever there 
is water, and equally barren where there is none. In both I have 
met with several new plants. A Zycium with fleshy leaves and ripe 
fruit, is very abundant; and there is a very remarkable Willow (?) 
the leaves of which, usually linear and toothed in the upper 
branches, become broadly oval. I am not at all sure of the genus 
of this tree, having seen only one withered small female catkin, 
which broke when touched. The villages are numerous, and trees 
are abundant round them, much larger and finer than in the Leh 
valley. Poplars and Willows abundant, and in addition, Apricots 
(of which there are very few at Leh), Z/eagnus Mooreroftiana, I 
presume, Apple, Wallnut, and a species of Ulmus (?) for so I guess 
it to be in the absence of flowers and fruit. I have collected the 
seeds of a number of plants, in addition to those I forwarded to 
you from Haulé; among others a Sophora(?) with spinous stipules 
strikes me as something out of the common way. Excluding 
the flowers, of which I know nothing, its characters are those d 
S. velutina, Lindley, as given in Walpers, T. 806; but the spinous 3 
stipules would of course have been noted had it been that species — 
T hope the seeds will grow, and that it will prove ornamental. _ 
«The general character of the vegetation I have passed through 
is undoubtedly Altaic, but with strong peculiarities. Caraganë — 
seems limited to the alpine region, stopping at about 13,000 feet, — 
that is, not occurring below that. The Astragali prefer a lower 
region, but I miss, hereabouts, many of those I found in Kunawa! — 
There is no Statice, I presume they frequent less alpine region : 
and I expect to meet with them as I go down the river, as they 
