108 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY, 
rather small but brilliant vermilion berries at the end of 
August. 
Saussurea sp. (F 337) I had not meant to send for anyone but Mr. 
Bowles, that lover of curious delights. However, as the quantity 
is sufficient, all may have their share, for what it is worth, of this 
odd thing which, perfectly tight to the ground in barer places 
of the upper alpine turf of Thundercrown and the Min S'an, 
there produces a fat head of (probably) quite dowdy flowers, 
followed by the plant's one attraction, a wide gleaming collarette 
of silver smoke, which when ripe detaches itself all of a piece 
and floats away upon the air like a filmy cigarette-ring. No 
other Saussurea attracted notice (and this only by its seed), 
though there is a flannelly-leaved one (if Saussurea it be) on the 
highest bare stone-slopes of the Min S'an, with Primuloid rosettes 
of grey foliage, and fat great buzzle-heads of undistinguished 
(so far as one could foretell) flower. [This proved weird in the 
Da-Tung Alps and was accordingly collected in 1915.] 
Saxifraga. — Take it all in all, the Saxifrages of this part of the Border 
are not brilliant in flower, nor profuse in variety. Of the 
Kabschia group one species only ; of the Porphyrions doubtfully 
one (out of flower and indecipherable in the topmost cold 
limestone crags of the Min S'an) ; the bulk belong to less 
interesting sections, and have so far yielded only one first-class 
plant. 
Saxifraga sp. (F 73) is our one Kabschia ; it is a neat and beautiful 
thing, forming masses like those of a rather lax S. valdensis, on 
which are applied solitary-blossomed stems of S. marginata, 
making a fine effect when the domes are covered in May with 
2-inch stems, each flourishing a full-faced snowy flower. It 
haunts cool aspects of the upper limestone cliffs from Satanee 
to the Min S'an, never appearing in other situations, and varying, 
like all its group, in brilliancy and amplitude of blossom. So 
scant a pinch of seed was alone procurable that it will not yet 
be available for distribution. 
Saxifraga sp. (F 200) is by far the most important, this year, of its 
race. It is a most splendid clump-forming species of the 
Hirculus group, very profuse in stems of 6-8 inches, beset with 
rather conspicuous glaucous-grey foliage, and expanding into 
generous corymbs, in July, of noble citron-yellow flowers with a 
deeper golden base. It abounds in all the higher alpine turf of the 
Border, between 10,000 and 13,000 feet, and ranges from Thunder- 
crown, up on to the lusher, cooler flower-fields of the Min S'an, 
where, amid the pale-blue surf of Gentiana hexaphylla, its rich 
tufts of grey and gold make an effect of perfect beauty. (A quite 
inferior cousin, of the same group, often accompanies it.) No other 
species was really worthy of note or collection, though F 216 
was a wee green moss with golden stars, that had a delicate 
gaiety in cool moist rock-ledges up the valley opposite J6-ni. 
