BOTANICAL TOUR IN CHAMBA AND KANGRA, 
187 
forests, and over all are towering rocky peaks with beds of snow 
descending their hollow's. Thus far our journey had taken us among 
comparatively low mountains and ridges, with glimpses only of 
snowy ranges enclosing lateral valleys, but now the slopes ran up- 
wards on all sides to elevations favouring the deposit of perpetual 
snow. From Alwas a short excursion was made through a valley to 
the westward. In the lower portion of this valley the trees are 
large and of varied aspect, consisting as they do of Corylus Colurna^ 
Quercus dilatatUy Prunus Padus, Cedrus DeodarUy Picea Mortnda, 
Ulmus Wallichianay Acer villosunty and others. The shrubs are of 
equal interest and include \^with many more) V iburnuniy Berheris, 
Desmodium tilsefoHum (which here attains its highest level), Spiraea 
sorbtfoliay Girardinia^ Vitis, etc. The density of the forest area 
prevents the growth of all but a few forms of herbaceous vegetation ; 
but higher up, where the trees first become scattered and then dis- 
appear, small plants exist in great profusion. As examples of these 
may be cited Parocketus, ImpatienSy PanunculuSy Epilobium, 
Arciium, Mahay Polygonumy Fagopyrunty Heracleum and other 
Umbelliferous plants, Senecioy CnicuSy Urticay and several species 
of ferns, 
A visit to the Sach Pass w'as undertaken on the following day. 
For some miles the road winds up through a forest of conifers, 
walnut, horse-chestnut, maple, oak, bird-cherry, etc. In several 
village. clearances, Indian corn and Amarantus paniculatus are 
cultivated up to an elevation of 9,000 feet. Quercus dilatata attains 
this level but a little higher up it is replaced by Q, semecarpt folia. 
At first the latter is a tree of noble proportions rendered conspicuous 
by its redd ieh* brown foliage. Further on it gradually decreases 
in size until at, and also above, the limit of other trees, it is reduced 
to a gregarious shrub w'ith sweeping branches. It forms dense 
copses appearing somewhat like Rhododendron-scrub in the distance. 
The forest tracts are at length succeeded by the open grassy 
slopes of the Alpine zone covered knee-deep w'ith multitudes of 
herbaceous plants too numerous to mention here in detail ; but the 
following genera named at random may serve as examples, — Astra* 
galuSy Epilobuinty NepetUy SalvtUy Delphiniuniy Lactucuy Sedunty 
LychniSy Pedicularis^ Swertia, Potentillay Morinay Geranium^ 
CorydaliSy Erigeroriy Saxifragay Pi Imulay Calthay A/econopsiSy 
Cynoglossum, Standing in the midst of such a magnificent floral 
display my attention was drawn to a fact often already noted at the 
same altitud in other parts of the Himalayas. In the immediate 
vicinity the air blazed with the vivid hues possessed in such 
