160 | Mountain and Monastery ; 
receiving any great store of reserve food during the vege- 
tative season. 
It must be remembered that at 16,000-17,000 feet, 
even on the comparatively dry Mekong-Yang-tze water- 
shed, fine bright days are rare, while usually there are 
damp swirling mists blowing up from the warm valleys 
even when it is not actually raining. Under these con- 
ditions, insect visitors—whether butterflies, bees, or small 
flies (and I have seen the last two at 17,000 ft.)—-which are 
already few compared with the number of flowers, are still 
further restricted in numbers, if not altogether wanting, and 
it is obvious that the flowers must therefore remain attrac- 
tive for a longer period than if the conditions were more 
favourable to pollination. This means that less time can 
be allotted to the ripening of the fruit. Moreover a large 
supply of endosperm would be of little value to a seed cir- 
cumstanced as these are. Their best policy is to get ahead 
as fast as they can immediately the snow melts, and make 
the most of their ephemeral existence. At the low tem- 
perature at which these seeds must necessarily germinate, 
the conversion and absorption of an oily or starchy endo- 
sperm would be a tedious business, and the simplest thing 
to do seems to be to send out a root and leaf as quickly 
as possible. 
At all events it is significant that the majority of plants 
at these altitudes are annuals or perhaps biennials, so that 
their existence from the germination of the seed to the 
ripening of the fruit is not prolonged much beyond four 
months; nor is it likely, considering the rigorous conditions 
under which they live, that they could absorb the materials 
for, and manufacture a supply of, reserve material. All they 
get they require for immediate use. 
From the screes I finally tried to climb to the very 
summit of the peak dominating this valley, a rocky pyra- 
mid from which a good view of the snow-clad Pei-ma-shan 
group might have been obtained. But some hundreds of 
feet higher, when I was a short distance from the top, 
a stinging snow-storm swept down, blotting out the view 
and so numbing me that I thought it best to abandon the 
attempt, especially as the rock was rotten and some of the 
traverses very nasty. I therefore descended to where my 
