1888-89.] Country traversed by Afghan Commission. ' 427 



its bank, we find a good-sized tree in Fopulus eupJiratica, 

 with a few tamarisks and Haloxylon, but except for these 

 from Herat to Zulfikar, there is not an indigenous tree. As 

 a proof of the aridity of the climate, I may state that only 

 on two occasions did I collect any ferns. Once, at the Sim 

 Koh Hills, at 3500 feet, I gathered Adiantum Cajnllus- 

 Veneris, and on the second occasion in the hills near Bezd 

 in limestone at 5000 feet, Cheilanthes Szovitsii. The latter, 

 however, was quite an exceptional locality, being a very deep 

 narrow defile, with a northern exposure, and having appa- 

 rently a perpetual spring oozing through the rock structure. 

 Here, therefore, and only here, were found growing Dionysia 

 tapetodes, a very moss-like primulaceous plant ; a creeping rock 

 bell-flower Campanida canescens; our common wall pellitory, 

 Parietaria officinalis, with a very curious small Euphorhia, 

 imitating the form and method of growth, in the clefts 

 of the rock, of an Asplenium ; indeed, when I first 

 noticed it, I certainly thought that I had got another 

 fern. 



"We left Khusan on the 26th November, crossing the great 

 plateaux that intervene between this and the Paropaniisus 

 range, and entered the Badghis by crossing the Chashma 

 Sabz Pass. As we neared the hills we found shrubs more 

 numerous, especially several species of Pntnus, but only 

 when we had got up to 5000 feet, and when crossing the 

 pass, did things begin to look interesting. From the posi- 

 tion of the Badghis, lying as it does to the north and east 

 of the Paropamisus range, one naturally expects to find a 

 very different climate to that of the country we have just 

 described as the valley of the Hari-rud. Such is the case ; 

 as here we have an atmosphere of an ordinarily moist 

 character, owing to the great masses of hills, which lie 

 exposed to the north, becoming covered with snow much 

 earlier in the year, whilst snow lies unmelted to a late date, 

 and thus a long constant supply of water is distributed to 

 the valleys below. This humidity, and the protection given 

 by the mountains from the blighting hot winds of the 

 south and west, give to the Badghis a climate allowing of 

 the existence not only of a splendid herbage, but of various 

 species of fine trees. 



The general appearance of the Badghis, including the nioun- 



