THE KTLBAM VALLET, ETC., AFGHANISTAN. 13 



employ them as snuff. These bushes in some localities form 

 such dense thickets that it is almost impossible to work one's 

 way through them. Occasional bushes of Bibes Grossularia and 

 JR. rubrum may be seen on the margin of the forest, where 

 also Juniperus communis occurs in great flattened isolated 

 patches. Rheum JMoorcroftianum is common on exposed ridges 

 formed of loose debris, and with it, but more generally in the 

 hollows, Polygonum rumicifolium. The bush-jungle rarely ascends 

 beyond an altitude of 12,000 feet, whence, to the crest of the 

 Shendtoi ridge, which is at its lowest 12,000 feet, there is little 

 or no vegetation except a species of Draba, Allium senescens, and 

 Bheum JMoorcroflianum, with a few grasses and a Garex. 



9. Vegetation from Shalizan to the Pewarkotal. 



Two miles above Shalizan the Durban river is joined on its 

 right bank by the Grandhao stream, which has its source from the 

 eastern spurs of Sikaram. On its left bank is the village of 

 Kaiwas, in the hills to the north of which, at an altitude of 

 10,000 feet, and under the western shade of some huge rocks, I 

 obtained Clematis Bobertsiana, a new and handsome species with 

 the largest flowers of the genus. Beside it, but growing on the 

 face of the rock, Potentilla Collettiana, also a new species with 

 Sibbaldia-like leaves and brilliant yellow flowers, and Eritrichium 

 sericeum in great beauty. In this valley, and to the west of it, 

 there is no Taxus baccata ; the Deodar and Juniperus excelsa 

 occur as isolated trees, but rapidly increase towards the west, 

 where they form forests. At the junction of the two streams 

 and between them is situated the village of Karrikalla, on the 

 lands of which it is said some crops are raised without irrigation, 

 viz. barley, wheat, Setaria, and Panicum. 



Prom Shalizan to the Pewarkotal, a distance of some fifteen 

 miles, the first part of the road lies along the edge of the low 

 hills, which are here composed of a coarse slate. From amongst 

 these springs of water issue at intervals, but which, in reach- 

 ing the gravel and conglomerate formation, suddenly disappear. 

 At some of these spring-heads I found JEpipactis veratrifolia, a 

 small Peristylus, with Primula denticulata, var., and Androsace 

 incisa. On the eastern exposure of these hills, and in the vici- 

 nity of springs, I noticed the plane-tree occurring as if natu- 

 ralized, and which did not seem to spread downwards following 

 the water, whilst the younger trees occurred higher up the hill, in 



