of Western Afghanistan and North-Eastern Persia. 157 



affirmed that the indigenous Pistacio was unknown in those 

 parts. In Persia the cultivated form of Pistacia vera is 

 grown in the orchards ; this I saw on several occasions, but 

 I did not meet with it in the gardens in Afghanistan, and as 

 far as I could learn it is not cultivated round Herat. It is, 

 however, a common thing to see trees of the indigenous 

 Pistacio growing round shrines, where they are carefully 

 protected. The cultivated tree of orchards has usually a 

 good stem, showing a fair amount of wood, and growing 

 altogether more luxuriantly and more like a tree than the 

 wild form. The value of the forests of the indigenous 

 Pistacio lies in their yield of nuts, but the harvest is 

 a precarious one, greatly due to the tree being dioecious, 

 and to fertilization being frequently unaccomplished. The 

 appearance of the staminate flowers on these trees are 

 the first signs of spring, and as they appear long before 

 there is any sign of leaves, they are unprotected and 

 easily injured by frost, and I have no doubt but that a 

 late recurrence of frost is one of the most frequent causes 

 of a bad nut harvest. The natives say that there is only a 

 good nut harvest every second year, and that when the nuts 

 fail the galls on the leaves are more numerous. The nuts 

 on some of the trees are partially dehiscent, whereas in 

 others they are quite indehiscent. So well is this known 

 to the people of the country, that in collecting nuts for 

 eating, should they chance to come upon a tree of which 

 the nuts are indehiscent, they just move on until they 

 come to a tree bearing dehiscing nuts. In the latter case a 

 slight crushing of the nut with the fingers gives exit to the 

 kernels, whereas in the former each nut has to be broken up, 

 as we would a hazel, before the kernel can be got at. On 

 many trees the female flowers are found not to have been 

 fertilized ; these develop into a nut-like form, and when 

 these unfertilized ovaries are examined they are found to be 

 quite hollow, the walls being apparently analogous to the 

 covering of the fertilized nut. These hollow nut-like sacks 

 hang on the trees like bunches of grapes all through the 

 winter (while the fertilized nuts fall off along with the 

 leaves) ; they are at once recognised by their semi-translucent 

 appearance and larger size than the ordinary fruit ; these 

 along with the external covering of the nuts are collected 



