78 TREES. 



valleys up to 9,500 or 10,000 feet above sea-level. 

 Here vegetation was most abundant. Fine tall 

 trees, dense underwood, and a variety of flowers 

 reminded us of the forests in the Amur country, 

 and were rendered doubly grateful by contrast with 

 the preceding aridity of the desert of Ala-shan. 



On our first entrance into the forests we recog- 

 nised many a flower and plant familiar to us at 

 home, and descried also many new kinds never 

 before seen. Among these the red-barked birch 

 {Betula Bhojpattra ?) was most conspicuous, attain- 

 ing a height of y::) to 40 feet, with a thickness of i 

 to i.^ foot in the stem. The trunk is very like that 

 of the common birch, excepting in its bark, which 

 peels off and hangs from it in long festoons. The 

 Tangutans use this, instead of packing paper. Close 

 by grows our old friend the white birch {Bettila 

 alba), also conspicuous in the lower forests. 



The aspen {Populus trenmla) next attracts our 

 attention, standing both solitary and in masses ; the 

 pine^ {Pinus Massoniana ?), and spruce fir {Adies 

 obovata), occasionally covering the hill-side ; the 

 spreading poplar [Populus sp.), and willow {Salix 

 sp.), only growing in the valleys. The red mountain- 

 ash {Sorbus AiiciLparia), side by side with another 

 kind {Soj^bus sp.) with fruit of an alabaster white, 

 looked very pretty, growing to a height of 14 feet. 

 The arboreous Juniper [yuniperus sp.), 20 feet high, 

 unlike other trees, is more often met with on the 



• It is not probable that this is P. Massoniana, which is я Japanese 

 plant of lower elevation. — J. D. H. 



