Oct. 1849. 



START FOR EASTERN PASSES. 



1ST 



but the shingle dam was now dry and hard: it would probably 

 soften, and be carried away by the first rains of the following 

 year. I left here the temperate flora of northern Sikkim, 

 tropical forms commencing to appear : of these the nettle 

 tribe were most numerous in the woods. A large grape, 



TIBETAN PHUD. 



with beautiful clusters of round purple berries, was very fair 

 eating ; it is not the common vine of Europe, which never- 

 theless is probably an Himalayan plant, the Vitis Indica 



* 



* The origin of the common grape being unknown, it becomes a curious question 

 to decide whether the Himalayan Vitis Indica is the wild state of that plant : an 

 hypothesis strengthened by the fact of Bacchus, &c, having come from the East. 



