Through the Lutzu Country to Men-kong 91 
blazed trees, with quantities of resin exuding from the 
wound, are a common sight, and the Tibetans, when they 
meet with one, hack out with their swords a fresh supply 
for their torches, or for starting a fire. 
I found that there are definite camping and _ halting- 
places on all these trails, sometimes under a cliff, perhaps, 
such as the place we had occupied on the previous night, 
or under a big tree, the blackened trunk of which has been 
hollowed out by a long succession of camp fires. 
The torrent we were following up to its source was 
frequently interrupted by small waterfalls, due apparently 
to the presence of harder shale strata amongst the lime- 
stone rocks; but in the stream bed were blocks of olivine, 
red porphyry, and other altered igneous rocks. A dense 
herbaceous vegetation five to six feet high, composed mainly 
of Ranunculaceae such as aconites, columbines, and lark- 
spurs, with Polygonum and saxifrage, lined the sides of the 
forest, in which arborescent Ericaceae, especially rhododen- 
drons, were conspicuous, with spruce and larch predomi- 
nating towards the summit. 
Crossing the spur at 12,000-13,000 feet we turned 
north, and during the descent gradually worked round to 
the west again. Primula sonchzfolca was still in flower up 
here, and lower down were masses of the shrubby Paeonza 
lutea and the two species of Cypripedium already referred 
to several times. On the limestone cliffs I noted for the 
first time bunches of the delicate violet-flowered /sopyrum 
grandifiora (Ranunculaceae) of which I afterwards found 
quantities on the limestone cliffs above A-tun-tsi. 
The descent to the Salween was a long and trying 
affair, for the mountain side was extremely steep and 
slippery, and my toes were sore for days afterwards from 
being pressed so hard into my wet boots. Gradually the 
high rain forest gave place to pine-clad slopes, and finally 
we found ourselves in a deep ravine with scattered huts 
and patches of cultivation above. Masses of orchids were 
in flower on the shale rocks, but as we approached the 
Salween everything seemed to shrivel up, and there were 
left only low-growing leguminous shrubs, and myriads of 
globular selaginellas. At dusk we got down into the 
Salween valley and approached the village of Saung-ta, 
