June, 1849. TIBETAN CUPS FROM BALANOPUOBA. 47 



leeks (" Lagook "), nettles and Procris (an allied, and more 

 sucenlent herb), eked out by eight pounds of Tibet meal 

 (" Tsamba "), which I had bought for ten shillings by stealth 

 from the villagers. What concerned me most was the 

 destruction of my plants by constant damp, and the want 

 of sun to dry the papers ; which reduced my collections 

 to a tithe of what they would otherwise have been. 



From Zemu Samclong the valley runs north-west, for 

 two marches, to the junction of the Zemu with the 

 Thlonok, which rises on the north-east flank of Kinchin- 

 junga : at this place I halted for several days, while 

 building a bridge over the Thlonok. The path runs first 

 through a small forest of birch, alder, and maple, on the 

 latter of which I found Balanopltora * growing abun- 

 dantly : this species produces the great knots on the 

 maple roots, from which the Tibetans form the cups 

 mentioned by MM. Hue and Gabet. I was so fortunate 

 as to find a small store of these knots, cleaned, and cut 

 ready for the turner, and hidden behind a stone by 

 some poor Tibetan, who had never returned to the spot : 

 they had evidently been there a very long time. 



In the ravines there were enormous accumulations of ice, 

 the result of avalanches ; one of them crossed the river, form- 

 ing a bridge thirty feet thick, at an elevation of only 9,800 

 feet above the sea. This ice-bridge was 100 yards broad, 

 and flanked by heaps of boulders, the effects of combined 

 land and snowslips. These stony places were covered with a 

 rich herbage of rhubarb, primroses, Euphorbia, Sedam, Poly- 

 gonum, Convallaria, and a purple Dentaria (" Kenroop-bi ") 

 a cruciferous plant much eaten as a pot-herb. In the pine- 

 woods a large mushroom ("Onglau,"f Tibet.) was abundant, 



* A curious leafless parasite, mentioned at vol. i. p. 133. 

 + C&rtinariw Emodensis of the Rev. M. J. Berkeley, who has named aud 



