A BOTANICAL EXPEDITION IN ASIA.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19010, 5 November 1923, Page 3

A BOTANICAL EXPEDITION IN ASIA.

THE SA LWEEN -IRR AWAD Y DIVIDE. HOME OF THE RHODODENDRON. Asia has been prolific in the yiolclinpr of its bontanical treasures to intrepid collectors, whose industrious work has resulted during the past century in adding hundreds of interesting plants to the nurseries of public and private gardens of Great Britain. The accounts of many of the expeditions in China and other parts of Asia that have from time to time appeared in the gardening publications have been of great interest. 'There has been running in the Gardener’s Chronicle a lengthy series of these articles by Mr Kingdon Ward, who chronicles in interesting form the epfsode? and trials of his seventh expedition in Asia. We moke some extracts from one of his recent articles which describe in graphic language the severe physical and mental efforts that are imposed on the collector when traversing the mountain regions in which are to found the plants and seeds which reward him for his toil. There are many places in the dense forests of Now Zealand where luxurious and bewildering undergrowth has made progress almost impossible, hut probably no more severe exertion even in them has been imposed on the first explorers than that endured by Mr Ward in the fastnesses of the Salween-Irrawady regions through which he struggled. The following extracts will show the endurance and strength that were necessary in order to win through;— At dawn, on October 21—a sweet, clear, dewy dawn—the minimum thermometer showed 44deg F. Wo breakfasted early, and started at 8.30 a.m.. descending immediately to the torrent, a few hundred feet below, by a sleep and hazardous path. At once we found ourselves in tne depth of the rain forest. For the next few hours the going was thoroughly bad. Up and down slippery, notched logs, balancing on ledges and tree trunks, scrambling oyer boulders and cliffs, grasping anything which presented itself—roots, lianas, rocks—we proceeded . perilously. . I grew; accustomed to the taste of my heart in my mouth. The sweat poured from us. . • ■ Under these circumstances, since we had at all costs to go on, on, on, it was not possible to see much of the forest, beyond the fact that it was a forest. The dim light, the concentration of mind necessary to stand up and keep moving, and the roaring water alongside, all added to one» confusion of mind. It wa-s mentally overwhelming, hut it was also grand and solemn beyond belief. That one was in the rain forest, that the trees were burdened with a vast epiphytic flora, and laced together with creepers, and that the herbaceous undergrowth ’ (notably Ferns and Urticaceae) surged waist-hign, was as much as one could be certain of. Now and again I observed the clean, shining trunk of a stamincum rhododendron (surely the series should be called Oxyphyllum?) or the large, oval leaves of a magnolia, the fissured bark of an oak, or the fallen fruits of a. ;«iima or a walnut. Occasionally a lance of sunlight split, the dense canopy, and struck the nodding scarlet flowers of an aeschynanthus or the sleek foliage of some zingiboraccous, plant. But for the most part I struggled up this remorseless yet fascinating stairway, myopic in the green haze of moss and ferns and foliage, stripped with dark tree trunks in a world of noise. Nevertheless, we mounted rapidly. Whatever might be said in censure of the hunter s path, at least it did not deviate. It went straight up the valley, over any and every obstacle. One thing was certain—without a guide. I could never have found the way, or more accurately, should quickly have lost it. A native accustomed to these forests could, of course, have followed the track without difficulty, by signs too refined for me to notice. ' But mooning along, keeping even half an eye on the wealth of vegetation. as I tried to do, was fatal. My head was in a whirl. Half a dozen times I found myself off the path, wading waistdeep through the yielding undergrowth and falling into holes, and was rescued by the men. After four hours of this we hailed for lunch. A subtle change had come over the forest. ’Die trees had increased greatly in size. Birch, maple, picea. larix, pseudotsuga, and' large-leafed rhododendrons had replaced the warm temperate trees of the lower forest ; the Indo-Malayan element had disappeared, and the mixed forest was largely coniferous. Calculating from the barometer reading, and correcting for temperature. we were now 3132 feet above the Salween River. Some of the trees were gigantic, and largest of all was a species of pseudotsuga. It is from these immense trunks that the Lutzu fashion their canoes. We allowed an hour and a-half for lunch, and then continued the ascent over a chaos of granite block*. The forest became more open and patchy. A wilderness of shrubs lined the river and filled the open spaces. Here and there sheets of meadow intervened, with herbs 10 feet high—giant nmbellifers and composite thalictrum. strobi lanthes, and others. But the meadow was already Drown and decayed. Presently the valley opened out, and at 4 p.m. we halted, having marched just under six hours all told. Good quarters for the night were afforded by an immense block of granite, in the shelter of which we camped. I had time before supper to look about me and to collect seeds. The valley just here was open and fairly level. Tho stream flowed more restrainedly over its granite gravel bed. and its high banks were lined with bushes, chromatic with autumn tints. Conspicuous on the shingle flats wore bushes of rhododendron brevistylum, and on th e great boulders was a low tangled bush, not rising 3ft from the ground, with very hairy stems, petioles, and capsules. The long stiff hairy at once suggest the bar-, batum series; but the coppery-red indumentum of the under-leaf surface is reminiscent of roxieanum, in whose favour I cast mv vote—not having seen the flowers. Following a fine day, the night proved equally brilliant, the sky crowded with vivid stara. Our altitude was now 3964 ft above the Salween, an ascent of 2408 ft on the day’s march. The change of climate now began to make itself felt, and next morning the minimum thermometer showed only 39deg F. The sky wai still clear. We now found ourselves climbing from terrace to terrace, up an obviously glaciated valley. The “treads” of this giant stairway were covered with alpine meadow, divided by strips of bamboo brake; the “risers” consisted of a confusion of boulders partly smothered under a dense growth of shrubs and trees. 'J o complicate the simple arrangement of “tread” and "riser,” therefore, we had these huge cones of rubble shot down from the glacier on our right, athwart our path, besides » succession of streams. At one lime we would be toiling up a “riser,” jumping from boulder to boulder; at another, scrambling over a gravel cone, slit down the middle by a deep trench dowii which the torrent slurred: or forcing our way through a belt of bamboo which rained dew generously down our backs; or wading up to our necks through a super-saturated meadow; or paddling across a torrent. Presently we found ourselves on great bulging slabs of granite planed smooth by extinct glacier? A small, ignoble Gentian was in flower here, and the clubs of a lycopodium were conspicuous. Rhododendron sanguineum sprawled flat on the rock, though in the bamboo thickets it chose to form a compact bush 3al or 4ft high. At 11.30 we halted for lunch and a rest, resuming at i. Meanwhile the sky had become overcast, and an alarming drizzle sot in. «f tho going had been difficult so far. it now became desperate. We could proceed by the stream no longer; the palh—if an invisible track can bo called a path--began to climb the mountain flank on our right, which consisted mostly of granite slabs a* described. Unfortunately, they were sometimes covered with a veneer of bog. which slid away when I stepped

on it. The result may be imagined. I collected seed of an iris here and also of a primula.

The going did not improve. We paddled up steep stream beds through tunnels of bamboo, climbed cliffs, and crossed several deep gullies. The rain changed to snow, and I grew seriously alarmed. All the peaks disappeared. Finally at 4.3(1 we halted in the last patch of abies forest, high above the deeply eroded valley. It had been a good effort —seven hours’ hard climbing, which accounted for, another 2621 feet. We were now' 5585 ft abovo the Sahveon.

Tho variety of rhododendron mot with during the latter part of the day was simply bewildering, and it was almost impossible to keep pace with them. They changed with ever-increasing rapidity as we ascended; and even the same species went through some protean evolutions, according to its habitat—this applies narticularly to species of the sanguineum and hsematodes type. Under the trees where we camped were several bark shelters, and these the men occupied; but I slept by the fire in my woe tent, for it was bitterly cold as soon as the sun disappeared. However, a brilliant sunset was succeeded by a splendid night. The arc of mountains at the hea-cl of our valley, with the pass we should have_ to cross on the morrow, was etched against the smouldering sky. Right abovo us towered the dark bulk of the Gompa La, its glacier gleaming like an iceberg. Dark clouds were sailing away over Burma, but below them flamed a broad baud of tawny sky. I sat by the fire for an hour after supper, writitig my notes, then turned in dressed, for the cold did not encourage a casting off of garments.