206 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. IX. 



decidous Conifer in Sikkim, the leaves falling in autumn to be renewed in the 

 beginning of the following summer. 



The peach and apricot, introduced from Tibet, are cultivated by the vil- 

 lagers at Lachung, but in no great quantity. I was informed that the fruits of 

 both ripen in the end of September. Pyrus sikkimensis, a wild Crab-apple tree, 

 is common, but its austere fruit is only pleasantly edible when stewed with 

 sugar. A little barley is reared with radishes and turnips, and these were the 

 only vegetables I could obtain worth eating ; the scanty yield of potatoes 

 consisted of wretchedly small tubers, so waxy as to be nauseating when cooked. 



The Tankra Mountain was within easy distance of Lachung, and as it 

 promised a quick introduction to the Apline Flora which I was so anxious 

 to see, I determined to visit it at once. We crossed the Lachung Rivers 

 threaded our way through the narrow, dirty lanes of the village, and im- 

 mediately climbed up the grassy slope above it. For about a mile the path 

 runs through a dense, herbaceous vegetation composed of the plants I former- 

 ly enumerated at Lachung. A beautiful small pink lily — Lilium roseum — 

 grew prof usely on banks associated with Rosccea alpina and Drosera peltata. 

 At 9,500 feet we passed through a fine grove of small trees of Rhododen- 

 drons, Maples, Roses, Lindera, Neesiuna, BetuJa utilis, and the laurel-like 

 Daphninhyllum himalayense. In a mossy hollow within this wood, I found a 

 large quantity of the delicate little fern, Polypodium trichomanoides. Goni- 

 opalebium subamcenum depends from the trunks of Silver Fir ; and Goniophle- 

 bium erythrocarpum, another epiphytic fern, accompanies arboreal vegetation 

 to the end. Passing the grove we entered the magnificent forest of pines which 

 extends without a break to 12,500 feet. We marched to its upper skirts, 

 where we camped after clearing a sufficiently large plot of ground near a 

 stream winding through an expanse of Rhododendrons. Two species of 

 Cremanthodium, Polygonum vaecinifolium, Oxyria digyna, Pedicularis of vari- 

 ous species, Potentilla fruticosa, beautiful yellow and white Saxifrages, Epilo- 

 biums, Lactuca macrantha, Parnassia and Aconites were the commonest plants 

 observed. 



The following day we held on our course upwards. The region of trees was 

 soon left in the rear, and a low growth of Rhododendron campunutatum succeed- 

 ed, showing the dark glaucous tints of its unfolding leaves. The bladder-head- 

 ed Sausmrea (S. obvallata) thrives on the damp margins of water-courses, and 

 bumble bees were busy amongst its foetid flower heads. These are in clusters 

 of a dark brown colour, enclosed in inflated white papery bracts forming ah 

 ovate head, and yielding sufficiently to allow insects to insinuate themselves 

 with ease. The woolly-headed Saussurea (S. gossypiphora) delighting to grow 

 in sandy debris appeared at first sight to be only a ball of white, fleecy 

 wool. The flower heads when young are completely enveloped ; but on the 

 approach of maturity a ring opens on the top disclosing the inflorescence 

 inside. Another remarkable plant, in similar situations, is Crepis glomerata, 

 whose carrot-like stem buried in the ground is flattened on a level with its 

 surface, and_; bears a broad head of yellow flowers, surrounded by small 



