-430 Dr Aitchison on Botanical Features of the [sess. lih. 



England consider the fibre very fine, and one that may prob- 

 ably be tnrned to valuable account. It is curious that this 

 shrub, though it grows in the Adriatic, so near home, has not 

 as yet been heard of as regards the value of its fibre, although 

 other species of this genus are known in America as pro- 

 ducing fibre for fishing lines and sucli purposes. 



We crossed the Paropamisus range from Gulran back into 

 the basin of the Hari-rud on the 1st April, but how different 

 did the plateaux now look in their spring garb ! Shrubs 

 covered with foliage "seemed to have suddenly sprung from 

 the ground, and the whole country, that was an arid waste 

 on our previous journey, was now beginning to show a sea 

 of lovely greens, interspersed with the bright colouring of 

 a tulip, T. montana, in full flower, tlie tints of which varied 

 from deep red, striped red, to a bright yellow. All the great 

 Umbellifene had now developed their basal leaves; some, 

 indeed, such as Asafoetida, were beginning to throw up their 

 flowering stems. These great Umbelliferai were Ferula 

 fcetida, which yields the Asafoetida gum-resin, Ferula galha- 

 niflua, which yields galbanum, and Dorcma animoniacum, 

 which yields animoniacum. The haljit of growth of these is 

 much the same ; they all prothice a great show of foliage 

 surrounding their perennial root stocks. This spreads out 

 on the ground, forming a circle round the base of each plant 

 over 6 feet across, and it is the approximation of the foliage 

 of adjacent j)lants that gives to the country its wonderful 

 appearance of a continuous pasture land. Later in the 

 season, upon each species throwing up its own peculiar form 

 of inflorescence, the landscape becomes much altered, more 

 especially from the presence of Ferula galhaniflua. When 

 this is in full flower, with its golden-coloured panicled 

 inflorescence from 3 to 4 feet in height, representing 

 a miniature forest, the sight is one to be dreamed of rather 

 than Ijclievcd in or descriljed. This wonderful verdure lasts 

 from the end of April to the beginning of July ; by the 

 end of that month it has as suddenly disapj^csarcd as it 

 originated, even to the fruit-ljcaring stems. The hot sun 

 dries the plants to tinder, and the jjrevailing hot winds finish 

 the work of destruction so thoroughly, that l)y August not a 

 trace of the past season's vegetation is Icjft. While speaking 

 of UmbellifeKe, I may here note that at certain altitudes in 



