MISCELLANEOUS NOTES. 701 



useful kitchen vegetable and much appreciated by the native population, 

 who also use the tender leaves and stalks as a vegetable, especially recom- 

 mended by Vaidyas as an appetiser to invalids when recovering from fevers. 

 The root is also used as a cathartic." Here ends Col. Peters' interesting 

 note. 



The only counterparts of Col. Peters' Eastern Bengal edible plant T, 

 (lioica, Roxb., on this side of India are the popularly called Tondlen, 

 {Cephalanden indica, Naud.) and the Snake-Gourd, TrichosantJies anguina 

 which are found all over the Dekkan and the Konkan. They are greatly 

 appreciated as highly valuable and dainty vegetables. They are mostly 

 found in the rainy season; and even now, after the rains. Besides 

 being cooked in the various ways described by Col. Peters, we cook our 

 Tondlen with rice mixed with spices. The dish turned out serves as a 

 valuable morsel to Hindus on festive occasions even in humble homes, as 

 well as at quiet homely dinner parties. I show a specimen of the fruit, 

 which is smaller than that of Col. Peters' plant T. dioica, Roxb. The snake- 

 f/ourd is also used in several ways in Indian homes. Whether it will be 

 relished at an English table is a matter of acquired taste. 



K. R. KIRTIKAR, Lt.-CoL; 

 1. M. S. (Ret.) 

 Andheri, Salsexte, 

 Januray 1912. 



No. XLIX.— NOTES ON THE FLORA OF THE VALE 

 OF KASHMIR. 



The Kashmir State, like ancient Gaul, is divided into three parts, the 

 northern province of Baltistan with the mighty Nanga Parbat on the west, 

 26,229 feet high, towering over the whole State, Ladakh on the east with 

 its many elevated plains, and Nun Kun, 23,447 feet in height, also on its 

 left flank, then Kashmir on the south with the River Jhelum running 

 across it, Kolahoi, 17,839 feet over the Lidar Valley, and Haramouk, 

 16,908 feet over the Sind Valley, while on the south is the Pir Panjal 

 Range, with such giants as Tatakuti, 16,024 feet, and Brahma Sakal, 

 17,590 feet high, forming the highest peaks. 



The Province of Kashmir is entered from the west at Kohala below 

 Murree, where the ground level on the banks of the Jhelum is 2,050 feet 

 above mean sea level ; the cart road into the State follows the lead of the 

 river to Baramula, running due north for 21 miles to Domel, then roughly 

 to the east for 40 miles to Uri, the level being about 4,000, and 29 miles 

 more to Baramula, where the Valley of Kashmir is entered at a base-level 

 of 5,170. Srinagar lies 33 miles to the east, in the centre of the Valley, at 



