The Flora of Doi Sutep, Siam 



T. D. A. COCKKKF.LL 



I 



In northern Siani at the end of the railway, is the town of 

 Chiengmai. I'ntil recently, this region could only be reached 

 after a journey of many weeks, but now the visitor travels com- 

 fortably and quickly in the train from Bangkok. In Chiengmai, 

 there is a group of American missionaries, who maintain an ex- 

 cellent hospital. We (Mrs. Cockerell, Miss Alice Mackie and I) 

 were kindly invited to stay with Dr. and Mrs. James W. Mc- 

 Kean, with the promise of a trip up the great mountain, Doi 

 Sutep. Dr. McKean is in charge of the leper hospital, a model 

 institution which owes its existence and its many admirable 

 features to his skill and industry. Here and elsewhere the work 

 of the medical missionaries in Siam is of great value and de- 

 serves hearty support. It is now supplemented by the various 

 activities of the Rockefeller commission, which during the year 

 before our visit gave no less than 186,000 treatments for hook- 

 worm, to nearly as many different people. American activities 

 abroad are sometimes criticisable, but in Siam they appear to 

 be and to have been in the past, entirely praiseworthy. One 

 consequence of this is that the botanist or zoologist travels 

 where he will, in peace and security, with the good will of the 

 people. Even the Buddhist priests are friendly, and on one oc- 

 casion we were permitted to camp in a Buddhist temple, sleep- 

 ing none the worse for the placid figure of Buddha looking down 

 on us during the night. 



When the day came, early in February, to ascend Doi Sutep, 

 we were taken in an automobile to the foot of the mountain, 

 where we found awaiting us a group of men with chairs on poles, 

 to convey us up the steep slopes. We were a little inclined to 

 feel superior to this luxurious mode of transit and did in fact do 

 a good deal of walking, but I for one was often glad of the assis- 

 tance, and found it necessary. Doi Sutep rises to an altitude of 

 about 5,500 feet above sea level, high enough to have elements 

 of the temperate flora on the top. I was mainly concerned with 

 insects, and had not intended to collect the plants, which have 

 been quite fully investigated by others. Yet there were so many 

 interesting species of plants that I took some papers and gath- 

 ered more or less fragmentary specimens of many, which were 



159 



