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