300 MESSRS. LACE AND HEMSLEY ON THE 
majority are apparently female trees, and during the time I was 
in Quetta (more than five years) I did not succeed in finding a 
single one of the latter with catkins on it. 
Ranunculus falcatus is one of the first small plants to appear 
in the spring, and, with Poa bulbosa, often covers the greater 
part of the ground in orchards during March. Iris Stocksii on 
the hills, and 2. Sisyrinchium, Iæiolirion montanum and Hya- 
cinthus glaucus in the fields, with Muscari racemosum near the 
irrigation-channels, are very abundant. Tulipa chrysantha is 
abundant everywhere, though when growingin cultivated ground 
it has larger flowers of a pure yellow colour. In deep soil 
Bongardia Rauwolfii is one of the most common early plants, 
and occurs elsewhere up to 7000 ft. 
Eremurus persicus, having white flowers, salmon-coloured on 
the outside, covers large tracts of stony ground, growing two to 
four feet high, and is usually associated with E. aurantiacus, whose 
young leaves are eaten by the Pathans as a vegetable, and whose 
flowering-stalks sometimes attain six feet in height. 
One of the most striking plants in the spring is Sophora 
Griffithii, its bright yellow flowers appearing before the leaves, 
although higher up, at 8000 ft., the flowers and leaves often 
appear together. On the lower slopes of the hills Convolvulus 
leiocalycinus, a stiff, spinous shrub, two feet high, with pure white 
flowers, is conspicuous and is characteristic of the more stony 
ground. Many Astragali are represented, the majority small 
plants with purple or yellow flowers. Later on in the year 
Sophora alopecuroides covers large areas wherever the soil is deep, 
and is very common in the fields. Othonnopsis intermedia, a woody 
gregarious shrub, of the Composite, two feet high, is also very 
characteristic of the Quetta valley, though it extends up to 9000 ft. 
Its native name is “ Gungu,” and it is said to be very poisonous 
to camels, and is used medieinally by the people; also a kind 
of tinder is made from its ash with cotton. Two species of 
Artemisia are exceedingly abundant in late summer. 
In the swampy grass-lands, called * chamans,”’ Ononis hircina, 
asmall, erect, spiny undershrub with purple flowers * Ranunculus 
aquatilis var. trichophyllus, Lotus corniculatus, Lepidium crassi- 
folium, Plantago major, Calamagrostis lanceolata, Phragmites com- 
munis, and Eragrostis cynosuroides are the most common plants. 
* In the ‘Flora of British India’ it is described as unarmed and as having 
reddish flowers. 
