1888-89.] Country traversed by Afghan Commission. 429 



fond of adding this barberry fruit, as we do pickles, to their 

 diet. A maple is also found here, from the bark of whose 

 roots a dye stuff is obtained. 



On the 7th December, we passed through our first forest 

 of Pistacio vera, although we had seen single trees and 

 occasional clumps as we came along. This forest was 

 especially interesting, as a few years ago Sir Joseph then Dr 

 Hooker, as Editor of the English translation of Decaisne's 

 Botany, at page 363, called attention to the fact that the 

 native country of this tree was unknown. When I was in 

 Ladak I found out that natives from Central Asia spoke of 

 the tree occurring in forests, and apparently as indigenous. 

 Here, throuohout the Badghis, there can be no doubt but 

 that it is so, and these forests of Kalla-nao have been known 

 for ages. Owing to the presence of these forests, certain 

 parts of the Badghis are called Pistalik, or Pistacio bearing. 

 The Pistacio nut is one of the great fruit exports from 

 Afghanistan to India, and, often along with it, the galls 

 produced on the same tree, which are valued for dyeing. 

 The natives assert that the trees bear in alternate years 

 nuts and galls. It is to be noted, that some trees only bear 

 nuts that are partially dehiscent, whilst on others the nuts 

 are altogether closed and indehiscent. Those collecting the 

 nuts for immediate eating always choose the trees on which 

 the nuts are dehiscing. A gum resin exudes from the tree, 

 very like mastich, which is valued as a remedy for cuts and 

 sores. The wood makes the finest fuel of any in these parts. 

 The tree, so far as I observed, was not cultivated in 

 Afghanistan, but was cultivated in orchards in Persia, the 

 fruit from these being much larger and of a superior quality. 

 At Gulran, where we were encamped for some time, I 

 first met with Apocymcm venetum, a shrub throwing up stiff 

 erect annual shoots of from 5 to 6 feet in height, from an 

 underground rhizome. It grew luxuriantly in marshy saline 

 soil. From the bark of the annual shoots the Turkomans 

 obtain a strong fibre, fi'om which they make a cloth. This is 

 called Katan, but Katan in Persia means linen. I believe this 

 to be the same plant from which, at Lobnor in Eastern Turkis- 

 tan, the natives make a cloth, which was considered by the 

 late lamented Colonel Prejvalski, the celebrated Eussian 

 traveller, to be the produce of an Asclepiad. Experts in 



