1888-89.] Dr Aitchison on Afghan Botany. 421 



A Summary of the Botanical Features of the Country traversed 

 hy the Afghan Delimitation Commission during 1884-85. 

 By J. E. T. Aitchison, M.D., C.I.E., F.E.S. 



(Read 11th April 1889.) 



In the present paper I propose to give a short summary of 

 the botanical features of the country traversed by the 

 Afghan Delimitation Commission during 1884 and 1885, to 

 which I was attached as naturalist, and as I proceed in this 

 description, to introduce some information relative to the 

 more valuable products which are grown in and exported from 

 these regions. 



The expedition left Simla about the middle of August, and 

 Quetta on the 22nd September. Owing to the heat of the 

 day, our marches between Quetta and Hadj-ali on the Hel- 

 mand were made during the night, and iu our course we were 

 guided by fires lit at certain distances. For guidance during 

 the day the whole of the route had been run over by a 

 plough, the furrow thus made directed those who from 

 necessity had to travel by daylight. 



The physical features of Baluchistan consist of gravel 

 and clay plains, bounded by low ranges of limestone, and 

 trap hills, intersected by numerous dried-up. water-courses 

 and undulating expanses of sand, which are said to be con- 

 tinuously shifting, owing to the action of the wind. The few 

 shrubs or bushes which occurred were tamarisks along the 

 margins of the dry water-courses, or were genera of Cheno- 

 podiacese, such as Salsola, Suceda, Anabasis, and Polygonacete, 

 such as Calligonum, Atraphaxis, and Fteropyrum, irregularly 

 dotted over the great plains. At the bases of the limestone 

 hills, the only tree of the country, Pistaeia Tcrchinthus, var. 

 mutica, was seen to exist in small clusters. This is a small 

 tree about 18 feet in height, with a tolerable stem of from 

 3 to 5 feet in circumference. The nuts are crushed to yield 

 an oil, which is eaten as a relish to bread, or used by the 

 local sportsman as shot, and the leaves are employed in 

 dyeing. In the vicinity of trap rock formations shrubs were 

 more common, and Stocksia Brahuica occurred as a laige 

 shrub, or small tree, extremely attractive at this season of 

 the year from the brilliant colouring of its clusters of mem- 



