accompanied me as far as Kalimpong; and I found the society of this gentleman, who had resided in that district for some time when acting as settlement officer, a great advantage, We took the road via Jor bungalow to Pash ok, which, though I have previously described it, was as full of interest and beauty as ever. A fresh set of plants had replaced those which I found here in flower in June, mostly Balsams and Gesneraceæ, but the grandest plant I found in flower during the day was a tall robust red-flowered Hedychium, which grew in the jungle just before reaching the tea plantation of Pashok. The forest at about 5,500 feet before reaching Lopchu was, or had been, one of the most magnificent in Sikkim, but though the giant trees had not been felled, yet some Bhutia cow-keepers had settled in it and by cutting the branches of saplings to get food for their cattle in the dry weather, had destroyed much of its virgin beauty. I thought birds were much scarcer than when I went over this road on returning from Sikkim in January, 1881, with Mr. Godman, but birds never seem so numerous in the height of the rains as they do in the cold weather, and perhaps the agreeable conversations of Mr. Paul prevented my looking out so much for them. Butterflies also were not abundant, and with the exception of a few Raphicera, Lathes and other Satyridæ, I saw nothing worth taking till I descended to about 5,000 feet, where I found the lovely gold and black Ilerda brahma common by the roadside on the edge of the jungle. The clouds cleared off as we got out of the forest and descended through the Pashok tea garden to the bungalow, where we found a hearty welcome as usual from Mr. Munro. He was one of the few planters who know or care much about flowers, and I found in his garden, among other things, the beautiful Lilium Wallichianum, which, as far as I know, grows nowhere in Sikkim out of this neighbourhood.^ A species of Gloriosa with smaller flowers than those of G. superba and a fine large Crinum were also in bloom; the Crinum, like the lily, is confined to the dryer spurs of the inner valley near the Tista river. Though Pashok is, at 3,200 feet, but little lower than Mongpo and not more than ten miles north of it, the climate is much drier and the rains are not so continuous. About 80 inches is the average here, against 150 inches at Mongpo, and 220 at Rungbi, which is even nearer. Pashok also seems much more windy than Mongpo, perhaps owing to its situation on a spur above the junction of the Rangit and Tista rivers. But the dryer climate does not seem to affect the crop of tea, which is as large in quantity and good in quality as in other gardens in the district; though not so much is made at the beginning of the season, it goes on flushing longer than on the other side of Darjeeling.
On enquiry I found that Lilium Wallichianum grows at about 4,000 feet elevation near Pashok, among brushwood, and makes its growth late in the season after the rains begin, at about the same time as in England. I saw a few plants close to Mr. Milton’s bungalow at Lopchu, but the bulbs were small and many of them not flowering. In the garden it attains
1 I afterwards found it where it had been overlooked by Hooker near Singtam
in Native Sikkim; and there is a beautiful photograph of it in Mr. Claude White’s
book, Sikkim and Bhutan.
