432 Dr Aitchison on Botanical Features of the [sess. liii. 



underground rootstocks, the liquorice stick of shops, make 

 splendid fuel. Our camp followers were the first to detect 

 it, on our marches through the Badgliis. They knew it well, 

 as at Kandahar they used to collect it for fuel. Frosopis 

 Stephaniana. — This shrub was common from the Helmand 

 over the rest of our journeyings. Its pods, when affected 

 by an insect, become enlarged into great twisted bloated galls ; 

 these are collected and exported as a dye stuff. Cercis sili- 

 quastrum, which I only collected at the base of Mount 

 Doshakh, and beyond Meshad, is valued in Persia for its 

 deep-red coloured annual shoots. These are used for basket 

 work, the manufacture of sieves, strainers, and ladles. They 

 make very pretty baskets. 



The chief genera in Compositee were Cousinia and Cen- 

 taurea. The former are usually found associated with the 

 Artemisice, occupying the great gravel plains and deserts ; 

 the latter occur near cultivation, and where moisture is 

 prevalent. A grand enormous thistle-like shrub is Ghindelia 

 Tournefortii, from 5 to 6 feet in height, which is found in 

 great gregarious masses occupying vast tracts of country, 

 and forming by its bayonet-like leaves impassable thickets, 

 which, as they wither up and dry, from the hot autumnal 

 winds, become friable, and are collected as a substitute for 

 straw fodder for cattle. For this purpose the plant is 

 regularly stacked for winter consumption. Codonocephalum 

 Peacockianum, a splendid perennial shrub, equally with 

 Gundelia, spreads in masses over certain tracts, and is eagerly 

 grazed upon by goats and sheep. 



I had expected to obtain several species of Artemisia. I 

 may safely say that there are only two which are at all 

 abundant, these being our common species, A. maritima and 

 A. eampestris, which seemingly defy drought and temperature, 

 existing in all localities, and in many instances forming the 

 only herbage, interspersed with Stipa pennata. They give 

 excellent fodder for all animals, as well as yielding fuel 

 to the passing traveller. I got a third species, but it is 

 uncommon. 



Of grasses I obtained some 64 species. The most common 

 was Foa hulhosa, which covered the great ])lains that lead 

 down from the Paropamisus, and which is followed as a later 

 herbage by two species of Agropjrum. Hardcum ithaburense, 



