THE CHINO-THIBETAN BORDERLAND 155 



4000 and 5000 feet altitude, a " Prickly Pear " {Opuntia 

 Dillcnii) has become naturalized. This American colonist 

 has made itself very much at home, covering many miles of 

 barren rocky slopes. It grows 6 to 10 feet tall, and when 

 covered with its yellow or pale orange flowers is very orna- 

 mental. The edible natiu-e of the fruit is well known to the 

 natives but is little esteemed. An extract obtained by boiling 

 the fleshy stems is locally employed as a supposed cure for 

 haemorrhoids. 



Amongst the coarse grass and scrub, the dominant features 

 of these regions, a variety of showy herbs occur, nearly all having 

 bulbous or thickened rootstocks in some form or other. To 

 garden lovers everywhere these valleys are of special interest, 

 inasmuch as they are the home of many beautiful Lilies, 

 Each of these valleys has species or varieties peculiarly its 

 own, which range up to about 8000 feet altitude, yet whilst 

 very local these Lilies are numerically extraordinarily abundant. 

 In late June and July it is possible to walk for days through 

 a veritable wild garden dominated by these beautiful flowers. 

 In the Min Valley the charming Lilium regale luxuriates 

 in rocky crevices, sun-baked throughout the greater part of 

 the year. It grows 3 to 5 feet tall, and has slender leaves 

 crowded on stems bearing several large funnel-shaped flowers, 

 red-purple without, ivory-white suffused with canary-yellow 

 within, often with the red-purple reflected through, and is 

 deliciously fragrant. In the Tung Valley, Mrs. Sargent's 

 Lily (L. SargenticB), a taller growing species than the foregoing, 

 with broader leaves, having bulbils in the axils, equally hand- 

 some flowers of similar shape, but varying from green to red- 

 purple without and from pure white to yellow within, is very 

 abundant in rocky places among grass and scrub. The 

 flowers of this species are collected, boiled, and dried in the sun, 

 then minced, fried with salt and oil, and eaten in the same 

 way as preserved cabbage. The bulbs of the Tiger Lily 

 (L. tigrinum) and its elegant ally, L. Thayerce, which are 

 white, are cooked and eaten. Several other Lilies abound in 

 these valleys, including the lovely L. Bakcrianum and other 

 species not yet named. 



A herb very common in the Tung Valley is Thalictrum 



