I find among my notes a list of all the species of plants which came under my observation during the walk from Chegaon to Miru. Their number is rather above 150 species, of which number about 120 are common Simla plants. Of the remaining thirty, eleven were quite new to me, ten had occurred only the day before, and nine had been common for some days past. These numbers convey a very different idea of the amount of change from that produced at the time, but the latter must be admitted to be very fallacious, the eye of the botanist being so naturally attracted by novelty, to the utter disregard of what is common, that it is difficult to preserve the degree of attention requisite to observe properly.
[Sidenote: QUERCUS ILEX. _August, 1847._]
_Pinus Gerardiana_ produces a very large cone, containing, like the stone-pine of Europe, eatable nuts, of an elongated oblong form, which, when roasted like chesnuts, are agreeable to the taste, though with a little flavour of turpentine. This tree has been repeatedly tried in the rainy districts of the Himalaya, but will not succeed, a dry climate being essential to it. Besides Gerard's pine, a new species of oak was the most conspicuous tree, forming a thick dry wood on western exposures. This oak, the only species of the genus which grows in the interior of Kunawar, is the _Quercus Ilex_. The specimens which I collected quite agree with the European plant, and belong to that form of the evergreen oak, which has been called _Q. Ballota_. The same tree is common in some parts of Affghanistan, where it is called _Balút_. A small graceful ash was also common, and species of _Stellaria_, _Lychnis_, _Dianthus_, _Herniaria_, _Cruciferæ_, _Senecio_, and _Valeriana_, which, with several _Chenopodiaceæ_ and _Artemisiæ_, were the new species observed.
[Sidenote: VIEW OF THE SUTLEJ. _August, 1847._]
On the morning of the 16th of August, we proceeded to Rogi, eight and a half miles. On leaving Miru the road at first ascended gradually through a pretty wood of deodar and Gerard's pine. The common pear-tree of the Himalaya, and many of the more ordinary Simla shrubs, species of _Desmodium_, _Indigofera_, _Spiræa_, _Buddleia_, and _Plectranthus_, were common under the shade of the pine-forest. As the elevation increased, the trees gradually diminished in number, and the road continued to rise along the side of a rocky hill, with only a few scattered deodars. A very pretty reach of the Sutlej now came into sight. The river was broader than usual, and seemed to flow with a gentle stream along an even bed, without interruption from rocks. Opposite the junction of the Miru tributary, which was in sight at the end of the reach, the Sutlej was particularly wide, and its channel was divided into several branches, which enclosed a number of gravelly islands, immediately beyond which the stream again contracted in width, and resumed its usual rocky character.