I have already compared the dry, pine-clad slopes of
the barrier range fronting the Mekong valley with the
richer vegetation of the gullies, and the deep valley behind



70 A Journey to the Salween

the barrier ridge in which we now found ourselves pre-
sented forests and undergrowth richer than anything we
had yet come across.
Amongst the dense thickets of rhododendron, many of
them big trees thirty feet high, but none now in flower, a
magnificent spruce was conspicuous, besides maples, birches,
and alders. Between the forest trees and the herbaceous
undergrowth was a second tier of shrub vegetation, Capri-
foliaceae (Lonicera, Viburnum, Diervilla), Saxifragaceae
(Ribes, Deutzia), Rosaceae {Rosa, Rubus, Prunus, Spiraea),
with Clematis montana and clumps of bamboo.
The undergrowth itself varied considerably according
to the nature of the forest, consisting in one place mainly
of ferns, in another of a yellow-flowered Corydalis growing
very rankly, but just here it was far more varied. A
pretty pink Oxalis was conspicuous, with several species
of Arisaema; here and there was a Listera, Monkshoods
occurred in quantity, and numerous plants of Lilium
giganteum were just showing their leaves. Indeed, the
Liliaceae were as richly represented as any order, and
included some very sweet-scented Oligobotryas both pink
and white-flowered, Paris, Convallarias, and others. There
were ferns too, as stated, Aspidiums and Aspleniums chiefly,
but these were confined to the damper parts of the forest.
