OCT. 1849. YEUMTONG. BACKWARD VEGETATION. 1 if, 



from Yeumtong, to request leave to depart for his home, 

 on account of his wife's illness ; and to inform me that 

 Dr. Campbell had left Dorjiling, accompanied (in com- 

 pliance with the Rajah's orders) by the Tchebu Lama. 

 I therefore left Momay on the 30th, to meet him at 

 Choongtam, arriving at Yeumtong the same night, amid 

 heavy rain and sleet. 



Autumnal tints reigned at Yeumtong, and the flowers 

 had disappeared from its heath-like flat ; a small eatable 

 cherry with a wrinkled stone was ripe, and acceptable in a 

 country so destitute of fruit.* Thence I descended to 

 Lachoong, on the 1st of October, again through heavy 

 rain, the snow lying on the Tunkra mountain at 14,000 

 feet. The larch was shedding its leaves, which turn red 

 before they fall; but the annual vegetation was much 

 behind that at 14,000 feet, and so many late fiowerers, 

 such as TJmbelliferm and Composites, had come into 

 blossom, that the place still looked gay and green : the 

 blue climbing gentian (Craiofurdia) now adorned the 

 bushes ; this plant would be a great acquisition in English 

 gardens. A Polygonum still in flower here, was in ripe 

 fruit near Momay, 6000 feet higher up the valley. 



On the following day I made a long and very fatiguing 

 march to Choongtam, but the coolies were not all able to 

 accomplish it. The backwardness of the flora in descending 

 was even more conspicuous than on the previous day : the 

 jungles, at 7000 feet, being gay with a handsome Cucurbi- 

 taceous plant, Crossing the Lachoong cane-bridge, I paid 

 the tribute of a sigh to the memory of my poor dog, 

 and reached my old camping-ground at Choongtam by 



The absence of Vaccinia (whortleberries and cranberries) and eatable Rubi 

 (brambles) in the alpine regions of the Himalaya is very remarkable, and they 

 are not replaced by any substitute. With regard to Vaccinium, this is the more 

 anomalous, as several species grow in the temperate regions of Sikkim. 

 vol. ti. L 



