REPORT ON A BOTANICAL TOUR IN SIKKIM, 1892. 
II 
its supremacy in numbers. It ranges from 9 to 13,000 feet. Up to 
11,000 feet it grows intermingled with the other lighter foliaged 
pines, but from that elevation to its highest limit, it exists alone or 
associated with the equally dark coloured Juniperus pseuUo-sahtnay 
so that nothing breaks the monotony of their sombre aspect on the 
slopes which they clothe with their lofty forests. Juniperus pseudo- 
sabina and J. recurva are the two last representatives of arboreal 
vegetation, both attaining 15,000 feet, the former as a small, stunted, 
weather-worn tree, the latter, as a prostrate intricately branched 
shrub. Large quantities of planks cut exclusively from Abies 
Webbiana are annually exported to Tibet. Their preparation is an 
important industry of the inhabitants of Lachung, who shape the 
timber with no other appliances than the axe and wedge. 
Picea Morinda and Tsuga Brunoniana are found between 8 and 
11.000 feet. The former is a tall conical tree with thick trunk and 
dark green pendulous .branches, the latter has spreading branches 
drooping at the extremities and bears very small cones Larix Grif- 
the only* Himalayan Larch, is restricted in its distribution to 
Eastern Nepal, Sikkim and Bhutan ; and, previous to its re-discovery 
by Sir J. D. Hooker, its existence was only known from a notice in 
Griffith's journals. It is pyramidal in outline and attains a height 
of sixty feet. The branches are long and pendulous and support erect 
cylindrical cones closely resembling those of Picea Morinda. It first 
appears at 8,000 feet, becomes plentiful at 9,500 feet, and ascends to 
12.000 feet. It is the only deciduous conifer in Sikkim, the leaves 
faHing in autumn to bf' renewed in the beginning of the following 
summer. 
The peach and apricot, introduced from Tibet, are cultivated by 
the villagers at Lachung, but in no great quantity. I was informed 
that the fruits of both ripen in the end of September. Pyrus 
sikkimensis^ a wild Crab-apple tree, is common,, but its austere fruit 
is only pleasantly edible when stewed with sugar. A little barley is 
reared with radishes and turnips, and these w^ere the only vegetables 
I could obtain worth eating ; the scanty yield of potatoes consisted 
of wretchedly small tubers, so waxy as to be nauseating when cooked. 
The Tankra Mountain was within easy distance of Lachung, and 
as it promised a quick introduction to the Alpine Flora which I was 
so anxious to see, I determined to visit it at once. We crossed the 
Lachung river, threaded our way through the narrow dirty lanes of 
the village, and immediately climbed up the grassy slope above it; 
For about a mile the path runs through a dense herbaceous vegeta- 
tion composed of the plants I formerly enumerated at Lachung. A 
beautiful small pink \i\y--^Lilium roseum — grew profusely on banks 
