28 
REPORT ON A BOTANICAL TOUR IN KASHMIR, 1893. 
leads through a forest of spruce and silver fir, with maple, hazel, 
elm, and Prunus Padus here and there intermixed, 
1 remained at Tanin on the 29th, and left on the following morn- 
ing for Shisha Nkg, at the head of the Liddar valley. This is the 
pilgrim road to the famous cave at Amarnath. There is a steep 
ascent from Tanin of about 1 ,000 feet through forest of birchand maple, 
after which the path traverses some grassy slopes at a considerable 
distance above the river until the camping ground of Zojpal is reach- 
ed. I sent my camp across the river from here to a place called 
Badzulkod, where two nalas, very promising-looking for botanical 
exploration, open out, and went on myself up the valley to Shisha Nag, 
about three miles distant. This lake is about 12, 500 feet above the sea, 
and lies at the base of an amphitheatre of bare precipitous moun- 
tains of a reddish colour streaked with black. There was a great 
display of flowering plants round about the lake, the majority of 
them of the ordinary kinds met with in Kashmir at this elevation, 
The two days during which my camp remained at Badzulkod 
were spent in exploring the tw^o small valleys alluded to above. The 
Sonsar nala, the one to the east, was visited on the first day. There 
is a fairly good path all the way up along the western side of this val- 
ley, which ultimately leads over a high pass into the Wardwan 
valley. After a rather steep ascent from the camping ground in an 
easterly direction, the valley takes a turn towards the south, and a 
small lake comes into view at an elevation of about 13,000 feet. 
There is a glacier at the upper end of the lake. Many interesting 
specimens were gathered on the cliffs forming the eastern side of the 
valley, and on the swampy ground near the lake. 
The following day (August ist) I spent in the Badzulkod nala. 
There is a small glacier at the head of it, the streams from which 
spread out in branches through a wide expanse of marshy ground, 
and here many interesting plants were collected. The deep pink 
colour of the flowers of Epilohium latifolium^ which grow in masses 
on the moraine debris, was a striking feature in the landscape. 
Several rare plants were found also on some high perpendicular cliffs 
above the glacier. 
On the 2nd of August I marched to within a few miles of 
Palgam. After crossing the Liddar by the permanent snow bridge a 
little below Zojpal, I kept along the right bank as far as the bridge at 
Prdslang, and thence to camp on the left bank. The vegetation on 
this side of the valley is remarkably luxuriant ; for, in addition to the 
circumstance of forest growth being much more dense on slopes 
facing the north, the low-lying ground by the river is unusually moist, 
