Part 33 - Rungzyung, 7 March: march up the Gamri Chu with botanical notes

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SUMMARY:
Describes a short, very hot march up the Gamri Chu from Rungzyung, noting plentiful Pinus longifolia and flowering Bauhinia variegata below Trashigong, along with Desmodium tiliaefolium, Woodfordia fruticosa, violets, and a spiraea. Mentions a notably well-built village of about ten houses, and records Lumsden’s view that the sores seen on locals last year were due to the Damdim fly (Simulium damnosum).

CONTENT:
7th March. Rungzyung. A short but very hot march
[Pinus longifolia] up the Gamri Chu. Pinus longifolia still plentiful particularly
north of the river. A beautiful Bauhinia tree was in
[Bauhinia variegata 1154] full bloom below Trashigong some of the way up here,
where side nalas with water come in. Also a pretty
[Desmodium tiliaefolium 1155] leguminous shrub with purple flowers with a green
patch in the centre of the keel, (1155). A queer red
[Woodfordia fruticosa 1150] flowered bush too was quite numerous, some in flower
with no leaves, some with flowers over & leaves out.
[Viola 1158, 1159] (1150). Here violets, 1158 & 1159, a spiraea 1157, &
the big tree "flower of the forest" are about the only
things in flower. The locals have built a most
magnificent 'village' here of about 10 houses all close
together, really the finest effort I have ever seen in
Bhutan, & that is saying a good deal. Lumsden thinks
that the awful sores we saw on so many people
here last year are due to the Damdim fly. That fly is
numerous even now, but does not seem to have so
much vim in its sting as in the wet weather. The
fly rejoices in the name 'Simulium damnosum'.