ARCTIC VEGETATION 35 



ash berberis, currant, honeysuckle, azalea, and 

 many rhododendrons. The turfy ground is covered 

 with gentians, potentillas, geraniums, and purple 

 and yellow meconopsis, delphiniums, orchids, saxi- 

 frage, campanulas, ranunculus, anemones, primulas 

 (including the magnificent Primula Sikkimensis) , 

 and three or four species of ferns. The country 

 being now so much more open, the valley bottom 

 and the mountain-sides glow with purples and yel- 

 lows of various shades. Not even here, nor indeed 

 anywhere in the Himalaya, do we see that mass and 

 glow of colour we find in California, where wide 

 sheets of meadow-land are ablaze with the purple of 

 the lupins and the gold of the Californian poppy. 

 But for the number of varieties of plants these upper 

 valleys of the Teesta River can scarcely be excelled. 

 As we ascend the mountain-sides above Tangu we 

 find them covered with plants of numerous different 

 kinds, and even at about 14,000 feet Hooker 

 gathered over two hundred plants. 



But now we are nearing the limit of plant life. 

 At 17,000 feet the vegetation has ceased to be alpine 

 and has become arctic, and the plants nearest the 

 snow-line are minute primulas, saxifrages, gentians, 

 grasses, sedges, some tufted wormwood, and a dwarf 

 rhododendron, the most alpine of wooded plants. 



At the summit of the Donkia Pass Hooker 

 found one flowering plant, the Arenaria rupifragia. 

 The fescue (Festuca ovina), a little fern (Woodsia), 

 and a saussurea ascend very near the summit. A 

 pink-coloured woolly saussurea and Delphinium 

 glaciate are two of the most lofty plants, and are 

 commonly found from 17,500 feet to 18,000 feet. 



