A BOTANICAL TOUR IN KASHMIR. 69 



which the eggs are usually laid. In some old broken-up cheroots, kindly 

 furnished by Mr. G. W. L. Caine, in August, 1891, were found both some very 

 young larvas and also two minute eggs which were thought to belong to this 

 species. The eggs were transparent-white in colour, showing the yolk cells by 

 transmitted light. They were oval in shape, with a number of minute protu- 

 berances at one pole, and they measured, one of them, about a fifth, and the 

 other about a third, of a millimetre in length. They were found loose amongst 

 the broken pieces of tobacco leaf. The eggs were evidently alive when found, 

 and their presence in the old cheroots goes to show that eggs are at least some- 

 times laid after the cheroots have been matured. This indicates that care in 

 packing and storing the cheroots is likely to tend to reduce injury by the insect, 

 though it would not, of course, prevent damage in cases where eggs had been 

 laid on the leaf before it was made into cheroots. It was suggested that 

 subjecting the cheroots to a temperature of 80 or 90 degrees centigrade for a 

 few hours before packing might serve to destroy any eggs or grubs they 

 contained. This treatment, however, was found to injure the flavour of the 

 cheroot, so could not be recommended. Upon the whole, the most likely 

 means of reducing damage by the weevil seem to be — firstly, to keep the leaf, 

 during the process of its manufacture, as much as possible out of the way 

 of old cheroots and refuse tobacco of all kinds where the insect is likely to 

 breed ; and, secondly, to pack the cheroots in as air-tight a manner as possible 

 so as to prevent the mother beetles getting into the boxes to lay their eggs. 

 The insect is known to attack stored rice, opium, .and other vegetable sub- 

 stances, as well as tobacco, so the cleaning up of the manufactory should be 

 as thorough as possible. 



A BOTANICAL TOUR IN KASHMIR, 1892. 



By J. F. Duthie, B.A., F.L.S. 

 [From the Records of the Botanical Survey of India."] 



I left Saharanpur for Kashmir on the 15th April, travelling by the ordinary 

 rail and tonga route via Rawal Pindi and Murree. I had to halt a few days 

 at each of these places in order to give time for the heavy baggage to reach 

 Baramula, at which place I arrived on the 1st May. Leaving by boat on the 

 same day I arrived at Srinagar on the 3rd. A few days were spent collecting 

 plants in the neighbourhood and arranging for botanical tours in other parts 

 of the valley. 



I left Srinagar on the 9th for Pirni in the Jhelum Valley, about six miles 

 below Baramula. Here I was delayed some days owing to the illness and 

 death by cholera of one of my botanical collectors. On the 15th I ascended the 

 Kajnag range from Pirni to an elevation of about 9,000 feet, and remained 

 there one day to collect specimens. On the following day the camp was moved 

 to the summit of the ridge, which is nearly 12,000 feet. The weather was fine, 



