2 
THE VEGETATION OF THE DISTRICT OF 
more especially on its economic side is much less meagre than other- 
wise it would have been, if the writer had been obliged to rely entirely 
on himself. Mr. Aubert understanding the Burmese language well, 
was most untiring in extracting information from villagers as to the uses 
they made of plants, and only those who have tried it can appreciate 
what a tax upon one’s patience the extraction of even the simplest facts 
from a dull-brained Asiatic peasant is. 
In the following itinerary of our excursion the reader is referred to 
the map, whereon the route is shown in red and the halting places 
indicated by a cross. Having laid in a stock of provisions we left 
Minbu on the evening of the ioth March, travelling all night in 
aggressively creaking bullock-carts. This, although a primitive and— 
in the present stage of evolution of the Burmese cart and the Minbu 
‘ roads ’ —a truly penitential mode of locomotion served our purpose 
probably better than any more rapid way of travelling would have 
done. Our route at first followed the right bank of the Irawaddy, 
which we skirted all night until at dawn we reached Semon. There 
we engaged a fresh relay of carts to convey our baggage to Khwe-the 
by road, while we marched along the river bank collecting as we went,, 
until we arrived at Khw6-th6 after noon. It now being exceedingly 
hot we halted at Khwe-the for the remainder of the day, taking shelter 
in a ‘Zayat’ or bamboo shed. In the evening we left Khwe-the and 
travelling again all night in bullock carts arrived at Sinbok at dawn 
on 1 2th March. That same morning we marched to Paunglin lake, 
and after collecting there what we could, returned to Sinbok about 
noon. We halted at Sinbok for the remainder of that day and the 
following day collecting and changing and drying paper. On the 
morning of 14th March we left Sinbok and struck North-Westwards 
for Pyogingon, where we arrived the same day. We spent that day 
and the following at Pyogingon, collecting in the neighbourhood, and 
left on the evening of the 15th March for Salin, arriving at the latter 
place early on the morning of the 16th March. Salin is the most 
important town in the district as far as size and trade are concerned 
being considerably larger than the town of Minbu from which it is 
distant about forty miles by road. Near Salin is a fairly large lake — not 
shown in the map — where we collected from a dug-out what acquatics 
we could find. In the evening we left Salin for Gwingyin, a name not 
shown in the map but the position of which is roughly indicated on 
the route by the cross south of Kontha. We halted at Gwingyin on 
the 1 7th and 18th March, collecting in the region around. On the 
evening of the 18th March we left for Myaung-u, also not shown in the 
map but indicated by the cross on the route a little to the east of 
