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SUMMARY:
Describes a frosty halt day, continued collection of Gentiana (lacunulata), and praise for the seed collector Tupden. Notes comparisons of the Dhu Chu area with the Bumthang Chu, reports a letter from HH about upcoming arrivals (Hicks, MK, Tasho Drunyer), tallies seed and plant collections, and mentions confirmations by Ludlow and Taylor regarding Mec. Sherriffii.

CONTENT:
with Mec. paniculata, simplicifolia & horridula, all of which are in cultivation at home. Tupden is one of the best seed collectors there could be. He takes great pains & always goes on till called away. I wished to have had him from the beginning. Now I know him, I find him very good indeed. He is a Khampa, probably a runaway murderer or something like that, from Markham. The area of the Dhu Chu is something like shown opposite.

4th October Halt. Another lovely day, & very cold hard frost last night. The tents each night now are covered with frost inside & out, & this makes them very heavy. Nothing special happened today. I went out to look for more of yesterday's Gentiana (lacunulata) 19789, & after a while we found a lot of it. It reminds me of G. amplicrata which we first found at Zimsati near Sangacholing in Takpo. I don't think it is G. depressa, & certainly isn't G. amoena. The more I see of this area, the better it looks. It holds much more than the Bumthang Chu valley, although this is a tributary of the Bumthang Chu. It must be more than just not so many yaks here, although there is no doubt that many yaks, & sheep too, in a valley, make a very great difference to the flora. A letter came in from HH to say Tasho Drunyer will arrive on 6th. So with Hicks on 5th, MK on 6th & us on 7th, there will be some activity in Bumthang this week. The main seed collection is now over, & I have about 130 gatherings of seed now, besides the 40-50 taken before & some 25 rooted plants & a number of bulbs & tubers & corms & so on. Ludlow tells me he has 5 lbs. of seed of Mec. Sherriffii! That shows how common it is when it does occur. Taylor has confirmed that it is Mec. Sherriffii, but a very fine form of it.

SUMMARY:
Notes list specimens 5887–5906 with habitat and identification comments on several Primula species and Meconopsis integrifolia. It records that Taylor obtained P. rotundifolia further east and includes additional taxa such as Cyananthus, Pedicularis, Geranium, Cotoneaster, and Saxifraga.

CONTENT:
53a Gonyi re
No. Taylor got rotundifolia further East.

5887 Primula Littledalei. This seems to have taken the place of 3892 (P. rotundifolia). It has much the same habitat, but does also grow out in the open on grassy ledges of the hillside. These taken from the lower altitude were in the mixed Abies rhododendron forest, which is quite unlike P. rotundifolia. They were growing just at the upper limit of P. Jaffreyana close to this. — at what I would suppose to be a very low altitude for a Rotundifolia primula.

5888. Primula hyacinthina. I don't know this form of P. bellidifolia. It has the thick farina on the back of the leaves like P. hyacinthina, but is a very small primula, much smaller than what I have seen of the latter. The usual height would be about 4"-5".

5889. Primula amabilis. I don't know this. The capsules look rather like a nivalid primula, but otherwise the plant does not. We were too late for any flowers.

5890 Primula rhodochroa. At first I thought of a dwarf kind of P. atrodentata, which it resembles in some ways. But flowers are nearly all single.

5891 Meconopsis integrifolia. Only seen growing in a very small area 50' x 50'. Flowers mostly over. There are many old scapes still standing in clumps, but the plant has old leaves at the base, just above the roots. The fresh flowers are a fine colour. Habitat is very similar to Mec. superba or Mec. Sherriffii.

Cyananthus lobatus 5893 Pedic. trichoglossa 5894 Ger. algeia x elwesii 5896 Cotoneaster nervosa 5899
" incanus v. leiocalyx 5901 " robusta 5900 " elliotii 5903
" filistyla 5906
Sax. melanocantra 5904
" signatella 5905