90 
FiOTANICAL TOUR IN CHAMBA AND KANGRA. 
sharply to the left through dense thickets of oak. The long ascent 
to Soai follows, through woods of Quercus dilatata, Q, Ilex^ Q* 
Uneaia^ pines, deodar, horse-chestnut, walnut, etc. Phytolacca 
ncinosa is common in these forests. The second march was to 
Chanota, and comprised alternating ascents and descents over bad 
)aths. Jasminum dtspermum and Clematis were common climbers; 
\hetta trifloraf Desmodium tilicefoliumt Plectranthus rugosus, 
Irtemisiai Salvia Moorcrojtiana, Cnicus^ Erianthus Ravennse^ 
Erianthus fiilva, Pennisetum, Andropogon and many other plants 
were abundant. Large trees of Alnus nepalensis flourished near 
the banks of streams. The third march was to Kuarsi over an 
execrable native path which skirted the face of a precipice the 
greater part of the way; All our energies had to be devoted to 
the task of getting through without accident, so that few plants were 
collected. Here and there oh jutting ridges we passed fine deodars 
which had grown very large in opite of these situations affording them 
such insecure-looking perches. The fourth march was to lias. It 
commenced with a steep ascent for a mile and a half through pine 
forests and fields of buckwheat and millets. Further on, as the 
steep rise which terminates in the peaks around the pass attains 
higher elevations, arboreal vegetafion is left behind, and is replaced 
by dense thickets of willows and grassy flats full of herbs, which 
had, however, been browzed down by the sheep and goats. The fifth 
march was from Has to Laka above Dharmsala, by the Mharam Ghati 
F’ass. A good variety of herbaceous vegetation straggled up close 
to the pass. For example there were Saxifraga diversifolia, 
Corydalis, Pedicu laris, Arencria festucoides^ Cyananthus lobatus, 
Tanacetum, Lactuca, Parnassia nubicola, Inula Royleana, Inula 
grandiflora, Sediim Ewersii, Lagotis, Athyrium thelypteroides, 
Cystopteris fragilis, and many more. On the Kangra side of the 
pass there is a precipitous descent to Laka which we accomplished 
tlirough blinding rain and sleet. On the following morning we 
inarched to Dharmsala. A noble forest of Quercus semecarpifolia 
extends round Laka. The stems of these trees are covered thickly 
w'ith mosses and they also support Woodsia elongata and Davallia 
pulchra in great quantity. T his fact proved we had again entered a 
moister climate, for the last few marches in Chambahad been through 
forests but scantily furnished with epiplytes. Around the traveller's 
bungalow at Dharmsala the sub-tropical vegetation of the North- 
W'^est Himalayas appears in great abundance. 
The period allowed for the duration of my tour being almost 
exhausted, there was no timd available for another extended 
