82 SIBKIUA. 



lutifolinm Kar.; li.'gumino.sfc, lialimodondron aigi'iitomii Lain., sphai-iujjliysa salsiila Pali., 

 aininodondroii SiovtMsii Fiscli.; iusk.s (losacoii^), Iliilthoiniia btiiborifolia Pall.; tamariks (lama- 

 riscinea?), tamarix liispida W. and myiicaiia alopcciii'oidcs Sclir.; cuirants (ribesiaceae), 

 ribes discantlia Pall.; solamim (solanciB), lyciura tiircomaiiiciim Fiscb.; buckwboat (poly- 

 gonoae), tlueo new spocios, a cal!if,'(jiium and two atiaphaxis. 



Yet rnori! cliaracteristic are the steppe herbaceous plants. Among tlp-in aie not lumn 

 tliau 40 per ci'iit of Enropcan .species, ami tliey lor the most part belong, like the two spe- 

 cies of featlicr grass (stipa pennata L. and capillata L,), to the steppe forms of European 

 Russia, or like the curious plant of the sandy (l(!serts belonging to the exotic family of ba- 

 lanophoreae (cynomorium cocciiH'iini L.) are mot with on the sandy shores of the Mediterra- 

 nean Sea. Further, besides plants occurring all over the Aralo-Caspian depression, Russian 

 explorers of the steppe flora of the Kii'ghiz region, such as Karelin, Shrenk, Semionov, Sie- 

 vertsev, and Baron Osten-Saken, have discovered here as many as 150 new species, charac- 

 teristic of this tlora, among them 30 species of astragals alone, and 10 salicornias (salso- 

 laceae). The following forms are particularly worthy of mention, leontice vesicaria Bge., 

 mcgacarpEea laciniata D., physolepidium repens Schr., acanthophyllum spinosum Mey, and 

 p.uiiculatuHi Ri'g., orobus Semenovi, Reg., alhagi camfdoruni Fisch., eryngium macrocalyx 'SL, 

 dipsacus azureus Schr., karelinia caspica Led., acanthoceplialus amplicaulis Kar., saussurea 

 Semenovi Kar^, and corouata Schr., echenais sieversi Fisch., streptorhempus hispidulus Reg., 

 non-climbing bind-weeds (convolvulus Semenovi Reg. and subsericeus Schr.), physochlaena 

 Semenovi Reg., eioniostachys sanguinea Jaub. and rotata Schr.); 4 species of statice (Seme- 

 novi Herd, otolepis Schr. etc.); 5 new species of spurge (euphorbia), irises (iris soongorica 

 Schr.), bulbous plants, rhinopetalum Karelini Fisch. and 4 species of onions; finally some 

 characteristic grasses (gramineae), as elymus lanuginosus Fr., nephelochloa soongorica Gris., 

 aelorupus intermedins Reg. et cetera. 



The fauna of the invertebrates in the Kirghiz steppe region is as peculiar and original 

 as the flora. The difference between it and that of Western Siberia and European Russia 

 is striking. On the other hand it is heyond doubt that this fauna differs very little from 

 that of the deserts and steppes of the Aralo-Caspian depression. The fauna of the 

 submountainous zone presents quite a different character, bearing a close resemblance 

 tit that of Turkestan and the Pamir. Among the coleopterous insects not only of the sandy 

 desert of the steppe zone, but throughout the whole of it, the sluggishly moving tene- 

 brionidae, without wings under their hard coherent elytra, predominate. On the contrary, in 

 the mountainous zone of the Thian-Shan and Alatau the tenebrionidae, who like the dry 

 steppe, are met with in smaller numbers, while here occur numerous kinds of carabidae, 

 among which are very rare mountain forms characteristic of the Central Asiatic mountain- 

 ous zones. 



Of the vertebrates a gi-eat number of birds come during winter from the far north 

 and nestle in the steppe and submountainous regions. The ornithological fauna of this region 

 is especially rich. In the warm valleys exist different species of fowls, as also the most 

 heautiful sorts of Asiatic pheasants; on the rivers and lakes is found a great variety of 

 birds, native of the Mediterranean basin, among which are covies of pelicans; and on the 



