JVE BID ADIEU TO KAN-SU. 253 



the thirty-eighth parallel, at a time when seventy-six 

 kinds of flowers were blooming, Avhich, however, re- 

 mained uninjured by the cold, so accustomed are the 

 plants of Kan-su to the severity of its climate. The 

 slig-htest drought, on the other hand, is far more 

 injurious to them. Rain fell on twenty-two days In 

 May, but as it was not continuous, it was not enough 

 for the herbaceous plants which require great 

 moisture. We noticed this particularly on the ex- 

 posed side of mountains, and in the plain to the 

 north-east of the Chagrin-gol, where the year before, 

 in the end of June, the flowers were more abundant 

 and brilliant. 



This only proves how elastic is the nature of 

 these plants, and how capable they are of adapting 

 themselves to the climate. I have myself taken up 

 by the root the yellow alpine poppy {Pap aver alpi- 

 nuni) when the earth has been so hard frozen that I 

 could hardly cut into it with my knife, yet the plant 

 was uninjured, whereas it would perish if it were not 

 for the incessant rains. 



We took leave of the highlands of Kan su, having 

 experienced to the very last their inclement, unset- 

 tled climate ; still the variety and abundance of the 

 scientific harvest that we reaped there in the vege- 

 table and animal kingdoms make us regard our 

 stay in that region as the best time of our whole 

 enterprise. 



