On the flat were flowering a beautiful magnolia with globular sweet-scented flowers like snow-balls, several balsams, with species of _Convallaria, Cotoneaster, Gentian, Spiraea, Euphorbia, Pedicularis,_ and honeysuckle. On the hill-side were creeping brambles, lovely yellow, purple, pink, and white primroses, white-flowered _Thalictrum_ and _Anemone,_ berberry, _Podophyllum,_ white rose, fritillary, _Lloydia,_ etc. On the flanks of Tukcham, in the bed of a torrent, I gathered many very alpine plants, at the comparatively low elevation of 10,000 feet, as dwarf willows, _Pinguicula,_ (a genus not previously found in the Himalaya), _Oxyria, Adrosace, Tofieldia, Arenaria,_ saxifrages, and two dwarf heath-like _Andromedas._* [Besides these, a month later, the following flowered in profusion: scarlet _Buddleia?_ gigantic lily, yellow jasmine, _Aster, Potentilla,_ several kinds of orchids, willow-herb (_Epilobium_), purple _Roscoea, Neillia, Morina,_ many grasses and _Umbelliferae._ These formed a rank and dense herbaceous, mostly annual vegetation, six feet high, bound together with _Cuscuta,_ climbing _Leguminosae,_ and _Ceropegia._ The great summer heat and moisture here favour the ascent of various tropical genera, of which I found in August several _Orchideae_ (_Calanthe, Microstylis,_ and _Coelogyne_), also _Begonia, Bryonia, Cynanchum, Aristolochia, Eurya, Procris, Acanthaceae,_ and _Cyrtandraseae._] The rocks were all of gneiss, with granite veins, tourmaline, and occasionally pieces of pure plumbago. Our guide had remained at Lamteng, on the plea of a sore on his leg from leech-bites: his real object, however, was to stop a party on their way to Tibet with madder and canes, who, had they continued their journey, would inevitably have pointed out the road to me. The villagers themselves now wanted to proceed to the pasturing-grounds on the frontier; so the Phipun sent me word that I might proceed as far as I liked up the east bank of the Zemu. I had explored the path, and finding it practicable, and likely to intersect a less frequented route to the frontier (that crossing the Tekonglah pass from Bah, see chapter XVIII), I determined to follow it. A supply of food arrived from Dorjiling on the 5th of June, reduced, however, to one bag of rice, but with encouraging letters, and the assurance that more would follow at once. My men, of whom I bad eight, behaved admirably, although our diet had for five days chiefly consisted of _Polygonum_ ("Pullop-bi"), wild leeks ("Lagook"), nettles and _Procris_ (an allied, and more succulent herb), eked out by eight pounds of Tibet meal ("Tsamba"), which I had bought for ten shillings by stealth from the villagers. What concerned me most was the destruction of my plants by constant damp, and the want of sun to dry the papers; which reduced my collections to a tithe of what they would otherwise have been.