Page:Mongolia, the Tangut country, and the solitudes of northern Tibet vol 2 (1876).djvu/99

Rh southern, i.e. sunny slopes, and at an elevation of nearly 12,000 feet among the Alpine shrubs. This tree is held sacred by the Mongols and Tangutans, who burn the branches for incense during prayer time.

The bushes are of course most abundant on the banks of the streams. Here we saw syringa (Philadelphus coronarius) in full bloom in June; two kinds of wild rose (Rosa sp.), one with white, the other red flowers; two kinds of barberry (Berteris sp.), one covered with thorns an inch and a half long; the Chinese elder (Sambucus Chinensis); gooseberry (Ribes sp.) in large bushes 10 feet high, with big yellowish bitter berries; a raspberry (Rubus pungens), with delicious fruit of a pale red colour; another raspberry (Rubus Idæus?) similar to the European species, but only two feet high, growing on the exposed hill side in the zone of the alpine shrubs; and seven or eight kinds of honeysuckle (Lonicera), one yielding a long blue fruit, which is edible.

Among the other bushes we may mention the Spiræa, black currant (Ribes), cherry (Prunus), spindle tree (Euonymus), wild pepper (Daphne Altaica?), Cotoneaster, Hydrangea pubescens, and the Eleutherococcus senticosus found on the Amur. The Lespedeza, however, a native of the same country, is not found further than the Munni-ula, not being met with either in the Ala-shan or