A Botanical Tour in the Sikkim State, Eastern Himalayas

The paper gives an account of the collections of Angiosperms and other lower group of plants made and studied by the author from the Sikkim State of the Eastern Himalayas during 1955. The area under study lies between 27°10'-28°5' N and 88°30'-89° E and includes the Lachen and Lachung river valleys, the upper Tista river valley and the neighbouring mountain slopes and meadows of the Northern Sikkim and the mountain ranges and meadow on way to Nathu La from Gangtok and Jelap La from Rongli, covering an altitude between 1400 and 4400 m. During the period under study, nearly 5000 specimens comprising 471 species of flowering plants, 6 species of Gymnosperms, 38 species of Pteridophytes and 14 species of algae, were collected. Notes on several medicinal and economic plants growing in wild condition, based on the data collected from the villagers and forest guards, are also incorporated in the paper.