584 STEWART: FLORA OF LADAK, WESTERN TIBET 
Taraxacum officinale parvulum  Lactuca decipiens 
Lactuca Scariola? 
BARALACHA LA 
Farther east, where Rupshu adjoins Lahoul, the plant life is 
very scanty because of the great altitude and because conditions 
of rainfall are very different from those in Suru. Lahoul itself is 
the transition zone to the luxuriant flora of the outer Himalaya. 
On the Baralacha Pass (16,000 ft.) scarcely twenty species were 
noticed, as shown by the following list. On each side of the Pass 
there is a very cold alpine lake that seems too icy for plant life. 
As early as 1820 Moorcroft wrote quaintly of one of them:—“ Not 
a weed deformed its pellucid and tranquil waters. There seemed 
to be no fish in it, nor was any bird or even a fly in its vicinity.” 
Carex nivalis Corydalis metfolia 
Oxyria digyna Draba lasiophylla 
Polygonum cognatum Sedum Rhodiola 
. affine Saxifraga sibirica 
ss molliaeforme Potentilla fruticosa pumila? 
Stellaria decumbens . argyrophylla leucochroa 
Silene Moorcroftiana Nepeta glutinosa 
Dianthus anatolicus Allardia tomentosa 
Ranunculus hirtellus Werneria nana affints 
Meconopsis aculeata 
RUPSHU 
As mentioned earlier, the most Tibetan part of Ladak visited 
was Rupshu. Plants must grow there to an elevation of fully 
18,000 feet, for we found half a dozen species at 17,500 feet. All of 
the plants listed, with possibly two or three exceptions, grew above 
15,000 feet. Species of Oxytropis, Potentilla, and Nepeta, Sedum 
tibeticum Stracheyi, Aster heterochaeta, Elsholtzia pusilla, Delphinium 
Brunonianum and Caragana pygmea grew at the upper limit of 
plant life. On hillsides Caragana was the most conspicuous and 
abundant plant, spreading out on the ground in the way juniper 
does in the northeastern United States (Fic. 2). It furnishes the 
chief fuel in these lofty regions. The Delphinium is also a con- 
spicuous plant with much the largest leaves and flowers of any 
plant near the top of the passes. The blades of its leaves may be 
