Thanks, ... Appears close to images at Gypsophila cerastoides D.Don

Pl. check.

Yes it is close indeed. Images taken in late season or very early season depict unusual structures many a times and difficult to identify.

Thanks ... You mention records of provenance?  Is there a site for plants grown at NYBG and their provenance?

Whilst being shown "behind-the-scenes" I got a quick look at old notebooks for plant introductions pre-WW2 but did not check anything for G.cerastioides, so presumably this may well be widely cultivated in North America.  Many plants in cultivation in N.US originated from nurseries, sometimes seed exchanges in the UK.

The UK Royal Horticultural Society has references which say when a plant was first thought to be introduced into cultivation but that tends to be the first introduction to places like Kew or through the Royal Horticultural Society itself. 

There are often one-off introductions as well, sometimes earlier.   Britisher (and other European) visitors to the foothills of the Himalaya did, on occasion gather seeds of local plants and took back to the UK in addition to introductions by formal expeditions.

G.cerastioides being common on mineral soils in Kashmir @ 2400-3900m could easily have been spotted by visitors.  I have to say I personally did not pay much attention to this plant during my visits to Kashmir in the 1980s.  My attention was only drawn to it on the Rohtang in Himachal Pradesh by others.   Never found it especially 'ornamental' to my eye but "beauty is very much in the eye of the beholder".

As for other species of Gypsophila in the Himalaya.  Stewart lists 9 species from Pakistan and Kashmir, though most of these were from S.Pakistan or probably reduced to synonyms of existing species. I have not checked. 

You are right that Gypsophila cerastioides is the correct spelling. The authors of 'Flora of Lahaul-Spiti' are incorrect is using G.cerastoides -

Few keep good records of the provenance of introductions into cultivation (this applies to botanic gardens) and rapidly (often within years, or certainly after decades where the specimen originated is often lost). I am not speaking of examples of hybridisation.

With large genera with species from many different parts of the world, it can be difficult to work out the correct identification.  Even when they are correctly identified, plants in cultivation do not always match its general appearance in the wild.  This is particularly true of higher alpines, which IF they can be grown at all (many such species represent a challenge to even the most skilled and dedicated growers), often not taking kindly to warmer, softer conditions at sea-level in another country, can end up not "true-to-type", being "leggy and unattractive".

Take the genus Cremanthodium (found in the Himalaya and SW China) as an example.  Most species have proven a challenge for more than a century.   The majority are virtually impossible to flower in the UK, whilst some growers in arctic Norway have succeeded with them - though I should add this is not just about low minimum temperatures; other considerations like day-length and light intensity may come into play?

Attempts at "Ex-Situ" Conservation of higher alpine species in the Indian Himalaya are in most cases doomed to fail, if attempts are made to grow specimens dug up at say 3600-4000m and then transported down thousands of feet to face comparatively high temperatures in a drier environment, which is the case for most botanic gardens.   Unless specialist, environment-controlled, 'alpine-houses' exist, with highly skilled "hands-on" horticulturists looking after them, said species stand little chance of surviving long.   And even if higher elevation 'stations' of botanical gardens are established it would be much better if attempts to grow them stemmed from seed, not digging up live plants.  This would be more eco-friendly, especially if said species really were 'Rare & Endangered' and stand a greater chance of success, as in general, plants adapt better from seed.   In some cases, "cuttings" might fare better and one is living the parent plants alive.   Though, whichever propagation method is involved, skilled, dedicated horticulturalists are required to work at such 'stations'.

Bernard Coventry (author of 'Wild Flowers of Kashmir') rented a hut at Gulmarg (like many Britishers did) conducted trials on 'alpine' Kashmir species whilst Conservator of Forests - during late 1920s and early 1930s, successfully flowering quite a number.  Few of these species would survive long in Srinagar.

At the New York Botanic Garden (New York experiences seriously low winter temperatures and snow), they have a small traditional 'alpine house' which is not state-of-the-art environment-controlled but does have an alarm system in case the temperature rises above a certain point.  New York experiences unpleasantly hot summers.

I saw no Himalayan species from higher elevations growing in the New York Botanic Garden rockery.

Thanks for contributing such wise comments. 

It MIGHT not be too late to salvage at least some of the pressed specimens languishing "behind-the-scenes" at the Urusvati Institute at Naggar, Kulu Valley.

Just needs those senior enough to secure access (as I stated, I tried and failed three times) for someone able to assess the state of the specimens.

It could be, even 80+ years later, that sufficient specimens remain in satisfactory condition to justify something being done with them.

Clearly, a proportion will have been lost through rotting away and/or insect infestation.  Perhaps the vast majority but dried specimens last centuries under suitable conditions.  The 19th Century pressed specimens from India at Kew are still (mostly) in good condition.

And the hard, time-consuming work of IDENTIFICATION has already been done by Dr R Stewart and others at Ann Arbor, University of Michigan Herbarium - which as I said, holds the BEST set of pressed specimens (with good field notes) of Kulu Valley and Lahaul specimens IN ANY HERBARIUM IN THE WORLD.  Though the nomenclature of many specimens will have to be brought up-to-date (as members see happening all-the-time on this site).

It would just be case of cross-referencing the collection numbers, then mounting, labelling and storing in cabinets. The specimens at Ann Arbor are a DUPLICATE SET of the ORIGINAL/FIRST SET collected for Roerich's Institute.

The big expense (not to mention time & effort & skill) of exploring in the mountains of Kulu Valley & Lahaul was undertaken in the 1930s.

It really has been such a waste.

The involvement of THAKUR RUP CHAND (from Lahaul's leading family at that time) in the collections was significant - very much Chand &

Koelz specimens, rather than just 'Koelz' specimens, not forgetting the considerable efforts of Wangyel and Rinchen Gialtsen

(who I awarded posthumous Kohli Memorial Gold Medals to in 2009 see: https://sites.google.com/a/shpa.org.uk/main/kohli-memorial-gold-medals).

IF sufficient specimens remain, they could form the basis of a QUALITY reference HERBARIUM for the region - all housed in a great location.  CONSIDERABLE sums are raised by the admission charge for the Roerich Art Gallery.   Surely, some of this could be spent on a project to FINALLY complete one of Roerich's ORIGINAL objectives of having a REFERENCE collection of the region's flora which INDIA should be PROUD OF.

It is Stellaria sp

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Hope Stellaria latifolia

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And sorry for the wrong upload.

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Please check also for number of styles, should be 2 in S. latifolia, occurs in dry habitats, Stellaria aquatica now Myosoton aquaticum looks very similar but has 5 styles and very common in wet situations.

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Thank you, Sir. I'll check for the characters suggested by you and report.

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I may be having some good photographs.

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