BOTANICAL INFORMATION. 665 
of the valleys at the foot of the mountains, I was able to recog- 
nise, from withered specimens, Linaria ramosissima, an abundant 
plant in many parts of the Punjaub, which I have not elsewhere 
seen at any considerable elevation; but the extremely rocky 
nature of the country, and the want of rain, are doubtless, in the 
autumn months, productive of a degree of heat far greater than 
that of the moister and more wooded districts, and little inferior 
to that of the plains of India. 
_ I returned to Iskardoh on the 11th of March, and was glad to 
find that the snow had almost entirely disappeared. The pass 
from which I had been turned back in December was not yet 
practicable, so that I had to wait patiently for more than a fort- 
. night longer before I was able finally to turn my back on the 
place of my winter residence. The advance of spring was by no 
means rapid. The weather was dry and sunny, with very often 
high winds, and there were none of those “ genial showers” so 
common in other parts of the world in spring, and which so 
materially hasten its progress. The fruit trees, however, showed 
some indications of commencing life, and near melting snow 
the banks of streams, and in other moist and marshy plac 
few plants made their appearance. A Crucifera (Hutchinsia ?) 
and two minute Gentians were the earliest. Tussilago Farfara 
was welcomed as an old friend; and in sunny corners I picked 
ua specimen or two of a violet, a Gagea, a Carex, and one or 
two other Cyperaceæ, and a few mosses. Still it was with great 
pleasure that, having ascertained that at last the road was open, 
I commenced my march for Kashmir on the 31st March. I did 
not find much to interest me on the road till I reached this side ` 
of the pass, and as I made seven marches through snow, the - 
journey was a fatiguing one. The part of Kashmir which is 
entered by the route I followed (the only one at present open), is 
the valley of the Scinde river, which, running east and west to 
the north of the great valley, and separated from it by a lofty 
range of mountains, unites its stream with the Jelam, a few miles 
below the the town of Kashmir. When I entered the valley of 
the Scinde, there was still deep snow, but the descent is with 
