132 Diary of an Excursion to the Shatool [No. 170. 



of Quercus kamroopii may be seen on a south aspect at Simla on the 

 lower bazar road, near Lord Combermere's bridge : and far down in the 

 vallies grows the " Banee," (the Funiyat of Kemaon), or Quercus annu- 

 lata, which Don calls Quercus phullata. The handsome globe-thistle, the 

 Echinops cornigera, is very abundant on the sunny rocks of the Punta and 

 Kunag ghats, and Morina longifolia nourishes on the Kunag Teeba : nei- 

 ther of these plants occurs nearer Simla, though Muhasoo would at first 

 sight promise them : but the neighbourhood of the plains seems 

 inimical to many Himalayan plants : just as thyme is plentiful at 

 Almorah, but unknown at Nynee Tal and the Gagur, with a much 

 more favourable elevation. The Iris decora is common on the grassy 

 slopes of the Kunag mountain, and towards Fagoo, the Spiraea cunei- 

 folia, " Takoo," in May and June, whitens as the roadside-like haw- 

 thorn. The red Potentilla (P. nepalensis) and the deep-blue Cynoglossum 

 furcatura abound at Theog, and tufts of the delicate little Androsace 

 sarmentosa hung, as at Simla, from the sunny rocks. 



This stage is generally decried as the most uninteresting near Simla, 

 and it is assuredly rather bare : yet the views are fine ; the bold bare 

 precipitous peak and ridge of Shallee, like a lion couchant, are no 

 where seen to such advantage, and are novel features in the more 

 usual scenery of Simla. On the left hand are the snowy range, Jum- 

 mootree, and the Choor .; and latterly in the same direction the great 

 northern spur of this last " cloud compeller" with its seamed and 

 scarped flanks, pleasant meadows, and beautiful woods, reminds the 

 traveller towards Mussooree, of one of the most picturesque excursions 

 short of the snows ; and the botanist, of Trillium govanianum, Actsea 

 acuminata, Paris polyphyllum, Podophyllum emodi, and several Poly- 

 gonatums and Smilacinas, which Fraser, by a pardonable deviation from 

 botanical orthodoxy, calls the lily of the valley. The mountaineers 

 commonly distinguish the Choor as the " Choor-chandnee" or " crest of 

 silver," the original having no reference to any abstraction of silver 

 spoons, as some, impelled thereto by Indian experience, have supposed. 

 The summit exhibits the only granite hitherto discovered amongst the 

 outer ranges of the NW. mountains, and is apparently a continuation 

 of the line of granitic out-breaks traced by Mr. Batten in Kemaon, 

 inside of the Gagur, which, in all likelihood, owes its superior altitude to 

 the vicinity of this great natural lever. The granite of the Choor is, 



