424 Dr iVitchison on Botanical Features of the [sess. liii. 



stood, when I state that our camp followers grumbled that 

 they could not pick up a scrap of bush or twig, to add to 

 the small quantities of fuel doled out to them by the Com- 

 missariat. 



At Zindijan we saw good large trees of Finns halepensis ; 

 this is cultivated usually only at Ziarats or Shrines, in 

 Afghanistan. At Karokh, in the hills between Herat and 

 Kallanau, a small wood of it which has spread from the 

 shrine has become naturalised. In Persia, at Sangun, and 

 some other localities, it is cultivated in rows on the windward 

 side of orchards, to protect them from tlie continuous gales 

 that blow there, and there I saw trees of fully 80 feet in 

 height, showing fine timber. That pines are scarce in these 

 parts may be seen from the fact that the ladies of the 

 nomad population place a pine cone in their work-bags, 

 believing it to bring luck to their household. In Persia, 

 where these trees have been more numerously cultivated, they 

 are cut down for their timber, — not so in Afghanistan. At 

 Sha-bad we met with some grand old elm trees, all the 

 result of cultivation. 



"We reached Khusan, 2000 feet in altitude, on the 18th 

 November, and found it a tolerably large village, containing 

 some 400 or 500 inhabitants. The houses in this part 

 of the country are, with rare exceptions, built entirely of 

 sun-dried bricks; the roof being domed, with a small aper- 

 ture for smoke, and are usually not 15 feet in height. The 

 dome appears to form the grcsater part of the building, and 

 tliis gives them a very bee-hive-like appearance. Except in 

 the doors and lintels, no other wood work is employed ; 

 and there are no windows of any sort. These dwellings 

 are extremely comfortable during winter, and as long as 

 the cold weather lasts, but in summer are quite unbearable 

 to live in, hence during the heat of summer the inhabitants 

 turn out and live in blanket tents in the vicinity of the 

 village, in the open country, where they get full benefit of 

 any air that may be in motion. 



The village is usually built so that all the houses open 

 into a connrion enclosure or yard, having an entrance and 

 exit gate at each end of the enclosure, and the back walls 

 of the united houses thus form a common fortified place of 

 residence. These great gateways are large enough for the 



