DR. THOMSON'S MISSION TO THIBET. ITI 
before the season for vegetation was at an end. On the pass near Lé, 
I got one or two new species of Gentianacee, and seeds of the Primula 
which I had gathered in flower in July. These I shall enclose, as the 
latter plant is very handsome, with a head of extremely large flowers, 
and does not seem-to be described. I arrived at Lé on the llth, and 
left it on the 15th of September, taking the most direct road to Kash- 
mir, that by Dras. In the valley of the Indus, along which my road 
lay for about forty miles, the dry stony plains were now covered with 
Chenopodiacee, a family which constitutes the most conspicuous portion 
of the autumnal flora of these tracts. Salsola is the most numerous 
plants of other tribes occur in any abundance. Nepeta floccosa is 
the only one which can be called common. In the cultivated and 
more fertile tracts, 4rtemisie or Tanaceta are very plentiful. I mention 
both genera, because I have not yet examined the flowers of any of the 
species attentively, and I do not know the limits of the genera suffi- 
ciently to refer them confidently from habit. At Kalatzo,.the road 
leaves the Indus, entering the hills to the south of that river, and pro- 
ceeding through lateral valleys at no great distance from it as it enters 
the Dras valley, not more than ten or twelve miles from its junction 
with the Indus. There were two low passes crossed, but neither of — 
them rose into the alpine flora. Immediately on leaving the Indus, 
a considerable change in the vegetation was observed. The predomi- 
nance of Chenopodiacee existed no longer: more than half of the 
species had disappeared. Many species, too, made their appearance 
which I had no where met with to the north of the Indus. Of these, 
Caragana versicolor is perhaps the most remarkable, for it is a truly 
alpine plant, and I think never descends below 13,000 feet. Indeed, 
though the genus is Siberian, no Indian Caragana occurs north of the 
Indus, though in the portion of Thibet adjoining Kamaon they seem to 
abound. Other species whieh are confined to the south of the Indus 
are remarkable, as European and Caucasian but not alpine species: 
they probably extend from Hindu Caucasus along the north side of the 
Himalayan range, not being capable of enduring either the heavy rains 
of the Indian slopes of these mountains, or the extreme aridity of 
orthern Thibet. Of these there are, I believe, many ; though till the 
absolute identity of the species can be fixed by actual comparison, I 
VOL. I. 2A 
