492 Transactions. — Miscellaneous. 



charred logs and pieces wore a highly-polished and semi- 

 glazed appearance, as if occasioned by the ever-drifting sharp 

 sand. I was so struck with the peculiar exterior of some of 

 the half-burnt timber, apparently so aged — or of old time — and 

 yet retaining all its vessels and ducts, that I collected a few 

 specimens, and subsequently sent them to England for high 

 microscopical examination. On the edges of this lonely barren 

 desert a lovely Gentiana flourished in all its undisturbed 

 beauty— probalDly G. pleurogynoides (another fine garden- 

 flow^er) ; also Cehnisia spectabilis, most luxuriant in gloriously- 

 fine tufts or tussocks; and with it grew a much smaller and 

 difi'erent-looking species of Cehnisia (G. glanclulosa), for the 

 first time here found, and both species tolerably plentiful. 

 Several times during this day were those exquisitely pathetic 

 words of the poet Gray, so highly suitable to the place and 

 scene, feelingly uttered by me : — 



" Full many a flower is born to blush unseen, 

 And waste its sweetness on tlie desert air. 



Very curious also was the formation, or, more correctly speak- 

 ing, the state in which the old land was left in many spots on 

 the west side of this desert. Table-topped mounds, from 6ft. 

 to 10ft. high, having perpendicular cliffy sides, each containing 

 only a few perches of land, and rising like little islets separated 

 from each other by the barren white sandy arms of the desert, 

 were common. These mounds, or islets, abounded in a pe- 

 culiar vegetation, which I greatly wished to know more of; 

 but, alas ! I was sadly pressed for time, and I wtis already 

 more than prudently overloaded for the unknown mountain- 

 journey before me. It was difficult, too, to climb up on them, 

 although I did manage to get on two. Here I obtained an 

 elegant dwarf Dacrydium (a "pine" tree, allied to the large 

 Eimu = D. cuprcssinum), rooting up a few old trees of 1ft. or 

 18in. high, in full fruit, for specimens — reminding me of the 

 quaint yet symmetrical little trees so greatly prized by the 

 Chinese for their gardens. Eain overtook us shortly after our 

 crossing the desert, which we were sorry for, but there was no 

 help for it, there being no kind of shelter nor water at hand ; 

 so we travelled on in the pelting rain, which was from the 

 south and in our faces, getting wet, weary, and dispirited, 

 eagerly looking out for a fit halting-place, but finding none. 

 To make matters worse, our guide more than once told us he 

 was "all at sea" as to the proper course, because the thick 

 rain hid the hills on all sides (and everything else) from 

 his view, so that he could not see the landmarks. "We kept 

 on, on, on, however, till 7 p.m. (dark), when, finding water, we 

 were obhged to halt in a narrow deep gully by the side of 

 a Fagus wood, where everything around for miles of fern and 



