A Journey to the Salween 71 
the plant, is not so easy to determine, though by its mere 
weight it holds the elastic flap well down over the aperture 
and effectually closes it from above, leaving only a narrow 
slit round the edge. This slit, however, is not very acces- 
sible to insects, owing to the rim of the spathe being 
turned down and outwards, and it seems to me that an 
insect’s only line of entry is down the spadix. 
If indeed the flagellum is affected by the weather in 
such a manner as to raise or lower the flap according to 
the humidity of the atmosphere, we should have its use 
clearly defined: but though I am inclined to ascribe some 
such function to it, I never saw it operate in this way, 
for it was always raining when I was in these forests. 
As we climbed higher, mixed forest gave place first 
to birch and finally to open alder forest, with a dense 
undergrowth of Corydalis: rhododendrons, spruces, and 
other trees had all disappeared from the valley bottom, 
though higher up they still clothed the mountain slopes. 
Here we found a small wood-cutter’s hut, and into this 
we crowded just as the rain began again, making the night 
very chilly, for it poured steadily throughout it, and dripped 
through the shingle roof, so that with daylight I was glad 
to crawl from beneath wet blankets into wet clothes. The 
prospects for the day looked utterly miserable, but at seven 
o'clock it began to clear up, and when we started an hour 
later, the rain had ceased. Passing through the drenched 
alder forest which grew rapidly thinner, we presently 
emerged into the open, where alpine meadow, with tall 
grasses and flowers, alternating with clumps of bamboo 
brake and fir trees, clothed the valley. Now we waded the 
cold stream (at least the men did, but I was carried across), 
recrossed it higher up by means of a tree-trunk which 
afforded precarious foothold, climbed steeply up through 
bamboo thickets, and, crossing once more over a snow 
bridge beneath which the torrent had cut its way, reached 
the head of the valley and sat down to lunch. Before us 
rose the snow-clad rock wall of the Mekong-Salween 
watershed, 
The alpine flowers spread out at our feet were magni- 
ficent—the glorious sulphur-yellow MMeconopsis integrifolia, 
Primula sikkimensis, large Thalictrums, Caltha, Anemone, 
