Dr. Griffith on the Vegetation of Afghanistan. 191 



or Australo-European botanical province. Dr. Falconer told 

 me, that he had ascertained it to prevail a long way to the 

 northward and eastward of Afghanistan ; and I have materials 

 for showing that it characterizes the country on the N. face 

 of the Paropamisus, between Maimuna and Bamean ; and from 

 the mission of Meyendorff to Bokhara, to which my attention 

 was directed by Sir A. Burnes, it is evident that it equally 

 characterizes Bokhara, and the country between it and Oren- 

 burgh. 



On this subject I shall enter into details in the purely bo- 

 tanical part of my report, which I shall have the honour of 

 submitting with the arranged collection. 



The striking features of the flora, as compared with India, 

 are the scarcity, generally amounting to absolute want, of in- 

 digenous trees ; a general poverty in variety of form ; the ge- 

 neral prevalence of forms characteristic of Southern Europe ; 

 the abundance of the large European families, such as crucife- 

 rous, umbelliferous, &c. plants, and of those forms of Composite 

 known to botanists as Cynarocephalice, and of which thistles 

 may be mentioned as familiar instances ; the common occur- 

 rence of bulbous monocotyledonous plants, such as tulips, 

 hyacinths, onions, &c. ; the nature of its grasses, and the scar- 

 city of Orchidea and Ferns, which may be said to exist only 

 in Eastern Afghanistan. 



The number of aromatic plants, the prevalence of thorny 

 species, and the very general occurrence of the flowering pe- 

 riods in the spring months, are also deserving of notice. 



From almost all the forms being what are called European, 

 it follows that no transition in form occurs consequent on va- 

 riation of elevation, similar to that which has been so much 

 noticed by all travellers in the Himalayas and other high In- 

 dian ranges. In this we are accustomed to associate height 

 with the appearance of forms familiar to our earlier days. In 

 Afghanistan it is not so, and it is remarkable enough that 

 even the summer floras of its lowest parts, which have as high 

 a mean summer temperature perhaps as any in the world, are 

 still characterized by a majority of European forms. In high 

 or in low, in hot or in cold situations throughout Afghanistan, 

 forms characteristic of an European climate will be found to 

 prevail. The traveller may pluck roses, pinks, hyacinths, sea- 

 lavenders, kochias, eryngos, catchflies, flags, &c. at an eleva- 

 vation of 1000 feet, as well as of 10,000 feet. It would 

 perhaps be difficult to find many generic forms characteristic 

 of altitude. 



Ordinary visitors would be likewise much struck with the 

 circumstance, that a total change in the indigenous plants may 



