Meyer: vSeeking Plant Immigrants 



115 



SHORE OF THE CASPIAN SEA. 



Various species of Tamarix, woody Chenopodiaceae and other salt-loving plants grow fairly 

 luxuriantly. These Central Asian tamarisks promise to have some value for the desert 

 of the south-western United States, as they grow vigorously even in moving sand, binding 

 it together, and furnishing a fuel supply to desert dwellers. They often grow in soil of 

 which the surface is covered by a thick, white deposit of alkali, and many species produce 

 attractive flowers. Photographed at Krasnawodsk, Turkestan, June 1, 1910. (Fig. 7.) 



agriculture in samarkand. 



Samarkand, Turkestan, 

 June 27, 1910. 



Alone in Samarkand! My assistant 

 got tidings from home yesterday that 

 his presence was urgently needed, as the 

 man in charge of his farm was severely 

 injured by a horse, and he left me. The 

 interpreter had left the day before, as 

 his eyesight and general health had 

 become rather bad these last days on 

 account of the great heat, and so it has 

 come to pass that I am left alone in this 

 far-away land, with only a mere smatter- 

 fog of Russian and no knowledge at all 

 in the Sart language, which is much 



spoken here. I'll get out of it, however. 

 We found a German, who may be willing 

 to go with me; his looks, however, 

 didn't please me, and to go with a 

 stranger in some out-of-the-way places, 

 with the necessarily large amount of 

 money I generally have with me, is not 

 a safe proceeding. 



Well, my last letter was from Ask- 

 abad, dated June 9, 1910, and it was 

 again a holiday, of which the Russians 

 only keep about thirty-eight a year. 

 The next day I went with the inter- 

 preter to the Experiment vStation about 

 four werst from the city. There wasn't 

 much to see: some plots with cotton, 

 some alfalfa fields, various beans and 

 a trce-nurserv, where somewhat more 



