4.24 Capt. N. Vicary's Notes on the Botany of Sinde. 



in several parts of Sinde, but thrives best at Sukkur and its vi- 

 cinity, on both banks of the Indus. There are two varieties : 

 one with pale yellow, and the other with brown fruit ; the fruit 

 is smaller than the Egyptian date, but when ripe is very palatable ; 

 only certain trees produce good fruit, about a third of the whole 

 perhaps. The fruit of the remainder is injured by tapping for 

 the juice, from which sugar is manufactured. 



The plants of the coast are of a mixed and peculiar character, 

 and many of them belong to more northern genera. Serraa in- 

 cana, Cav., grows plentifully on the sand-hills of the coast ; the 

 only known species of this genus is a native of Succotra, and is 

 described as being only three inches high. The Kurrachee plant 

 forms a bush two feet in height, and when in flower is very pretty ; 

 perhaps it may be a new species. 



A very hoary Atriplex, not far removed from A. verruciferum, 

 is also very plentiful : Ipomcea bilobata spreads over the sand in 

 every direction, and Sccevola Taccada, Roxb., is abundant on the 

 tops of the sand-hills ; the berry is white at first, but turns purple 

 when ripe. A new species of AZgialitis is also found all along the 

 coast, and a new shrubby plaDt of the Paronychia, with the bark 

 and almost the leaves of an Equisetum. 



Cadaha Indica ? grows on the rocks at Minora Point ; I also 

 noticed this plant in the Hala mountains, but am rather doubtful 

 as to the species ; I have only seen the cucumber-shaped fruit 

 which is made into a piekle by the Sindeans. 



I shall now proceed to notice seriatim such plants of my her- 

 barium as appear to me deserving of elucidation. 



Umbellifer^e. 

 Indigenous plants of this class are rare in Sinde ; I have but 

 one specimen from the Hala mountains, which for the present I 

 have referred to — 



1. " Libanotis ;" the plant smells strong of asafcetida. 



Rhizophorace^e. 



I found a fresh flowering branch of a tree of this class floating 

 in the surf on the beach at Kurrachee, but nowhere detected 

 living trees. 



2. It belongs to the genus " Ceriops " of Arnott ; the many 

 mouths of the Indus will doubtless afford others of this order. 



CrUCIFERvE. 



3. A species of Farsetia abounds from Bhawulpoor throughout 

 Sinde ; it is often the only food procurable for camels, who eat it 

 greedily along with a frutescent Crambe ? In the Hala moun- 

 tains it is used for the same purposes. 



