REPORT OF WORK IN 1915 IN KANSU AND TIBET. 
to distribute. It belongs to damp grassy flats far out in Drokwa-land 
across the Border, with one or two stray outlying stations in the 
Tibetan highlands verging upon China. The tall stem rises from 
amid strap-shaped foliage, and hangs out a succession of tasselled 
Hamameloid yellow flowers. I myself have not seen it in bloom, and 
I am told that it resents any but the most careful transplantation 
in all stages, ardently desires damp, and is itself in all stages no less 
ardently desired by slugs. 
5. sp. (F 744) is another very beautiful species of similar situations, 
at its finest in the grassy plain below Chebson Abbey, but occurring 
throughout the region, even up to Wolvesden. Here the glaucous 
foliage is splendid, as in the Senecio formerly called Senecillis carpatica, 
and the two-foot stem erupts near its top into a raceme of very large 
golden flowers in August. I have not yet seen any of its race to 
equal this in general impressiveness and brilliance of blossom. 
5. sp. (F 752) is pretty certainly S. sagitta. This is among the 
rather coarse commonplaces of this commonplace family, of which 
China in late years has been so painfully fertile. S. sagitta, however, 
has its merits, when from the wide drifts of its arrow-headed foliage, 
almost universal in the lower alpine region, rise in August the tall 
three-foot stems, unfolding their dense snaky spire of small yellow 
blossoms. , 
Serratula sp. (F 742) is very close to F 432, and only differs from 
that sumptuous weed in being dwarfer, not more than eighteen inches 
high at the most. Otherwise F 432 gives its perfect picture. 
Stellera sp. (F 93) abounds as whole-heartedly in the Da-Tung 
Alps as in those of the Min S'an, and had this last year, therefore, 
yielded an unparalleled harvest of seed. It is never an alpine plant, 
loving the hot open loess downs at a mere 9,000 feet or so. 
Trollius pumilus (F 519) was only sent in 1914 in small quantities. 
1915 yielded a vast harvest, and should provide well for the world. 
It is specially abundant in the Da-Tung Alps, and a spectacle of un- 
believable glory immediately round Wolvesden House in the green 
lawns. It gave a citron-coloured variety, and, down in the Dene, 
beside the Holy Well of the Buddha, the holy influences of the locality 
produced two specimens of an absolutely pure ivory-white form 
which is one of the loveliest things I have ever seen in the race. T. 
pumilus Perfectissimi exists still (I hope) in the two original specimens 
lured alive across China, Russia, and Europe with pains that I would 
not have deployed on any infant ; and there are also photographs 
and paintings of form and type. 
Trollius sp. (F 532) is quite a distinct species, though of the same 
habit and situations, hailing from the grassy plains in which the 
extinct becks debouch westward of the range upon Hsi-ling and 
Chebson. It is rather smaller, though, and starrier in flower, with 
different foliage, and seed-heads refreshingly devoid of that stickiness 
which is such a mark of T. pumilus. It should be watched with care 
as it deserves. 
