Page:Mongolia, the Tangut country, and the solitudes of northern Tibet vol 2 (1876).djvu/101

Rh rooted elecampane (Inula Britannica), and the stinking bugwort (Cimicifuga fœtida). Ferns (Polypodium vulgare, Adiantum pedatum, Asplenium sp.) also abound in these forests.

On the open hill-sides in the tree-belt grow varieties of saxifrage, red lily (Lilium tenuifolium), hyssop-leaved dragon's-head (Dracocephalum Ruyschiana), Senecio pratensis, Schultiza sp., Allium sp., Gentiana sp., Ajuga sp.

In the open valleys in spring we saw numbers of flowering Iris; and in summer: aster (Aster artaticus), common sorrel (Rumex Acetosa), Persicaria (Polygonum polymorphum), primroses (Primula Sibirica), forget-me-nots (Myosotis sp.), hare's-ear (Buplearum sp.), Gentiana sp., Anemone sp., Artemisia sp., Melica sp., Elymus sp., Spodiopogon sp., Lolium sp.; Ranunculus, Oxytropis, and Potentilla.

One kind of the last-named flowers familiar to us under the name of wild tansy (Potentilla anserina), is called here djuma, and supplies an edible root, large quantities of which are dug up by the Chinese and Tangutans in autumn or spring. The roots are washed, dried, and then boiled in water, and eaten with butter or rice; they taste something like beans. A poisonous kind of grass (Lolium sp.) grows here and in the Ala-shan mountains; it is called Khoro ubusu by the Mongols, and is very injurious to cattle, especially camels, the native herds carefully avoiding it.

But the most remarkable plant of the tree-belt is the medicinal rhubarb (Rheum palmatum), known