INTRODUCTION 
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gay with Strobilanthes. In fact all seasons in Simla, except 
extreme winter, have their show. At Fagu there are few trees 
except some pollarded Quercus dilatata, but on the peak above are 
still to be found a few specimens of the brown-leaved oak, Quercus 
semecarpifolia, and many plants of beauty and interest may be 
collected on the grassy slopes towards Cheog if the grazing has 
not been too severe. 
It is at Fagu that the road to the Giri valley branches off and 
goes on over the Paternala range with a path leading to the con- 
spicuous and interesting Chor Mountain, which rises to 12,000 ft. 
and possesses a few interesting alpine plants. 
The road to the Upper Sutlej valley passes for most of the 
way on a level path cut out of the rock or winding round the hill- 
sides to Theog, Matiana and Nagkanda, forty miles from Simla, 
the whole road possessing great interest to the lover of scenery and 
the botanist. Most of the road lies either through cultivated 
lands or round bare slopes, but in the ravines there are oak and 
rhododendron forest. From Matiana an interesting excursion can 
be made to the limestone peak of Shali, where the Himalayan 
cypress, Gupressus torulosa, grows ; and from Nagkanda the 
favourite excursion is that to the top of Hattu, whence there is a 
magnificent panorama of the snowy range, with the valley of the 
Sutlej on one side and that of the Pabar, a tributary of the Jumna, 
on the other. The forest on Hattu consists of the firs Picea 
Morinda and Abies Pindrow below, with Quercus semecarpifolia 
around the peak and on the slopes to the north. In the Bhagi 
forest many trees of European genera occur, such as walnut, elm, 
hazel, birch, alder, maple, poplar, willow, hornbeam, holly ; the 
whole mixed with shade-loving shrubs, small bamboos ( Arundinaria 
spathiflora), ferns and herbaceous plants. Among the latter bal- 
sams are conspicuous, the curious Podophyllum Emodi and the 
tall spikes of Lilium giganteum. On the grassy slopes to the 
south there is, in early autumn, quite a blaze of colour, the 
most conspicuous plants being Erigeron multiradiatus, Corydalis 
Govaniana, Potentilla atrosanguinea, Anaphalis, Delphinium, Aco- 
nitum and Pedicularis, while various species of Saxifraga and 
Sedum adorn the crevices of the rocks. 
In recent years much has been done in the way of planting 
trees and making gardens in Simla, and the excellent and very 
successful works undertaken by the municipality for the regula- 
tion of ravines have completely changed the aspect of the slopes 
and done away with the many unsightly landslips that used to 
disfigure them. The work has been done by letting the water go 
down in ladder-like stone-built troughs, the sides of which have 
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