KASHMIR. 69 
leaf, and apparently promised a very luxuriant crop. On the low parts 
of the plain I met now and then a good deal of swampy ground, pro- 
ducing the same plants as the bank of the Kashmir lake. Where not 
too much under water, these swampy tracts are laid out in rice-fields ; 
but the season for rice-planting not having arrived, they are now bare. 
Two days from Kashmir I halted a day, for the purpose of climbing a 
high mountain, which rises isolated on the north side of the valley. 
This mountain, which was ascended by Jacquemont, who gives its 
height as rather more than 10,000 feet above the level of the sea, is 
called in his journal “ Vestervonne :" Wasterwan is an approach to 
the true pronunciation. My trouble was well repaid by a considerable 
number of new species; though much fewer, of course, than I should 
have got a month later. The southern slope by which I ascended was 
bare and rocky. At the bottom I found the ordinary vegetation of the 
low hills about Kashmir, namely, species of Berberis, Rubus, Daphne, 
Rosa Webbiana, &c.: a Zizyphus is common, but hardly in leaf. The 
most remarkable novelty was Prangos pabularia, in great abundance near 
the foot of the mountain. It was just coming into flower, and ex- 
ceedingly luxuriant, forming thickets as high as a man. Several 
other gigantic Umbellifere were also common. Higher up, the most 
abundant plant was a Tulip, which I believe to be T. stellata, Hook. ; 
judging at least, by its expanded flowers, the leaves of the perianth 
were quite patent, red externally, and pure white within. Here and 
there among the rocks grew a few plants of Fritillaria imperialis: the 
rocks lso adorned with the large leaves of Saxifraga ciliaris, already 
almost past bloom. 
As only the early spring-plants were in perfection I can give you 
no good idea of the vegetation, but may mention that I added to my col- 
lection a Nepeta with lanceolate leaves, a purple Oxytropis, and a yellow 
unarmed Astragalus. On reaching the top I found it partially covered 
with large patches of snow. The summit was rounded, bare and grassy, 
but the north face was covered with wood commencing a very few feet 
below the top. On the grassy turf close to the snow grew many 
eautiful plants. Most common was that abundant spring-plant of 
Himalaya, Primula denticulata: a Gentian, an Anemone, and a Calli- 
anthemum (mentioned by Falconer in Royle's Illustrations) were the 
other species. From the steepness and rockyness of the southern slope, 
these plants did not occur till I reached the top; but on the northern 
