OF SOUTH-EAST SIKKIM. 
331 
We had a long search for a gap in the rampart of rock and the only 
available gorge required a mile of cutting through the scrub to make it 
practicable. Near a deserted shepherd^s camping ground below Ningbil 
we came across, at 13,000 feet, plants of Circreaster agrestis^ a rare plant 
found in'the Kumaon hills and also in Tibet and West China. Its small 
hooked fruits no doubt explain its occasional presence in the vicinity of 
the sheepfold s. 
The area here is undoubtedly less wet receiving about half the rainfall 
of the outer Chola ridges. Instead of the rain arriving at 8 or 9 a.m. as 
is the average at Changu and Dikchu, we usually escaped until noon. 
The chief difference in the vegetation was the almost entire disappearance 
of the large species of Eenecio which were so characteristic of the Chungu 
area. 
We spent two or three days at Ningbil and the Ongchu ridges. We 
bridged the Ongchu and made several attempts to reach the Tanka La 
from this side but without success. 
(iSiiatoiig and Dzalep La. 
By the 10th we had returned to Changu and after obtaining later 
stages of the Changu and Laghep flora, marched by way of Kapoop to 
Gnatong. The opportunity was taken to visit the Dzalep La, the flora 
of which closely resembles that of^the passes to the north. The imme- 
diate neighbourhood of Gnatong is of comparatively little botanical 
interest The forest of Ahies IF ebbiana which was once all round the 
village has been cleared, and the common weeds of the district occupy the 
space. By the streams are large plants of Mandragora caulescens from 
two to throe feet high, much more robust than the specimens seen near 
Changu. The calyx in fruit is an inch and a half long, and the fruit 
over two inches in diameter. 
We visited the source of the Gnatong Chu and of the Dikchu, and 
the boundary hill, Gipmochi, without finding any very good botanical 
ground. Some miles of the Gnatong Chu which we traversed on the 
1 8th yielded a beautiful Codonopsis which frequents the precipitous banks. 
On the I9th we reached Phadonchen where we spent a day examining 
the forest flora between 5,000 and 9,000 feet. Hosts of leeches at this 
season render this area disagreeable to explore. The lower valleys by 
Ari and 'Ehenock are interesting but present no botanical features new to 
those who have visited the opposite slopes of Pedong and Kaiimpong. 
Weather. 
The summer of the Chola Range is a short one -and very wet, 
corresponding to that of the Singaleia Range. I kept & rough record of 
