foresL ciiul every vil!;iii,e has a small plan! at ion ot willow aii<l 

 poplar trees to secure a su|)ply of poles for iheir Hat-roofefl, 

 adobe houses. 



The chief frui( trees are the a|)ric(jt, luulberry, waluut aiul 

 apple. The chief food grains are barley, l)uckwheat, wheat, 

 millet, Chenopodiuin, and Ajnaranthus. The wealth of the 

 people consists in their Hocks of sheep, goats, and yaks. Many 

 of the shepherds are nomads and live a great deal of the time at 

 altitudes of 12,000 to 15,000 feet. 



About 825 kinds of flowering plants have been reported from 

 this country. Many of them are alpine plants which are also 

 to be found in Kashmir. These are only found near melting 

 snow or the streams and are not typical of the flora as a whole, 

 which is more related to the flora of Tibet and Siberia. A 

 great man>,- mesophytic weeds are common in the villages. 



The commonest plants to be found near water and on the 

 high passes are polygonums, pinks, buttercups, corydalis, sedums, 

 saxifrages, potentillas, astragali, primulas, androsaces, gentians, 

 mints, Gallardias, and saussureas. In the deserts the chief 

 orders are Chenopodiaceae, Cruciferae, Leguminoseae, Boragi- 

 naceae, and Compositae. Artemisia is probably the commonest 

 genus in the compositae. Typical plants of the desert areas are 

 Ephedra Gerardiana, Eur oka ceratioides, Lepidiiini latifolium, 

 Christolea crassifolia, Rosa Weblana, Astragalus sp., Heracleum 

 sp., Acantholimon, Nepeta sp., Stachys tibetica, and Echinops 

 cornigerus. 



About eighty plants were found at altitudes of 15,000 feet or 

 over. They were naturally very small as it ma_\' freeze any 

 night of the year at these heights. A rhubarb and Delphinium 

 Brunonianum were the largest of these alpines. The>' were 

 chiefly grasses, Caryophyllaceae. Cruciferae, Potentilla. Oxy- 

 tropis, Nepeta, and Composites. The edelweiss, Leoniopodium 

 alpinum, the common dandelion, thyme, Chenopodium album-, 

 Poa pratoisis and Triglochi)i maritima are probably the plants 

 among these eighty that are familiar to Iwtanists in this country. 



Arthur A. Graves, 



Secretarv. 



