6 TRANSACTIOXS OF THE [Sess. lxxx 



into pine forest, in which oaks, rhododendrons, and other 

 shrubs appear, and this in turn into the temperate rain 

 forest which fills the valleys. 



On the Mekong- Yangtze divide, however, this pine fore.st 

 is wanting ; the xerophilous flora of the valley continues 

 to a higher altitude, and then passes into a belt of scrub 

 oak, or in favourable localities a mixed scrub, after which 

 come thin forests of Abiei^, and linalh' larch. There is no 

 rain forest, and no dense undergrowth, the formation which 

 corresponds to this being a thin open forest with Picea, 

 oaks, birches, poplars, and so on, in which shrubs, such as 

 willows, roses, barberry, honeysuckles, etc., actually pre- 

 dominate ; and so open is the formation that the under- 

 growth consists of a few shade plants only, Podopliylluin 

 Emodi, Wall.; Pyrola atropurpurea, Franch. ; Priimda 

 lichiangensis, G. Forrest; Cyp)ripediuin tiheticum, King; 

 and Meconopsis Pratt ii, Prain, being typical examples 

 where the formation is best developed. In a very few 

 places, by streams, an open grassland appears to a limited 

 extent. Priimda vittata, Bur. et Franch. ; Androsace spin- 

 ulifera, Knuth ; . Cynoglossitin amabile, Stapf et Drumm. ; 

 and Trollius puniilus, Don, var. yunnanensis, Franch. are 

 typical plants here. Most of the coniferous trees and a 

 large number of deciduous-leaved trees which are a feature 

 of the Mekong-Salween divide are altogether absent, while, 

 on the other hand, the forest belt is largely made up of a 

 few species: Picea, oak, birch, and maple below; Abies, 

 juniper, rhododendron, and larch above. 



The dominant formation on the Mekong- Yangtze divide 

 then is no longer forest, but shrub (or scrub), which covers 

 the greater part of the range : on the most exposed slopes 

 it is always scrub oak ; on more sheltered slopes it is 

 mixed, comprising a number of thorny Legiiininosae 

 (Carafjana, etc.), Berberis, Jasinimim, Rosa, and others ; 

 and in the valleys are willows, Lonicera, roses, small trees 

 like Pyrus and maple, with scattered meadow plants by 

 the streams, the latter, liowever, including none of tlie 

 characteristic plants inet with in the alpine meadow of the 

 ^lekong-Salween divide. Here trees begin to appear — 

 birch and Abies — not, however, forming tliick forests. It is 

 evident then that on the Mekonfr-Yanoftze divide forest is 



