April 28, 192 1] 



NATURE 



271 



Lieut, (now Prof.) O. Olufsen, entered the 

 High Pamir by the Kisil-art pass (14,300 ft.) 

 on its northern border, spent a month in 

 camp near Lake Jashil-kul (13,500 ft.) in the 

 Alichur Pamir, and in September marched south 

 to the western end of the Great Pamir, and thence 

 through Wakhan and Goran to Chorock (7000 ft.) 

 in Shugnan. After wintering there from Novem- 

 ber, 1898, to February, 1899, the expedition re- 

 traced its steps and left the High Pamir by the 

 Kisil-art at the end of March. The floristic results 

 of this expedition have been published in numerous 

 papers, mainly by Prof. Paulsen, a member of the 

 expedition. In 1901, and again in 1904, the 



we find that, while many plants are common to all, 

 some are peculiar to each. We still await an 

 equally careful survey of the Pamirs with 

 streams that flow eastward, and of the slopes 

 which overlook Kashgar. 



While the last word cannot yet be said with 

 regard to the phytogeography of the High Pamir, 

 B. Fedtschenko, probably justifiably, felt, after 

 his first visit in 1901, that the time was ripe for 

 an ecological review of its vegetation. In this, he 

 recognised eight distinct plant-associations — 

 aquatics ; river-bed bushes ; plants of the haughs 

 along the river-banks ; plants of the bluffs between 

 the haughs and the true valley-floor; "desert" 



Fig. I. — The plain east of Mardjanaj. In the foreground a heap of fuel, tufts and stems especially of Arteinisia, Eurotia, and Chrysanthemutn 

 ^amiricum. The mountain behind shows dark vegetation lines in furrows of dry watercourses. Froiu " Studies in the Vegetation of Pamir." 



High Pamir was traversed by Mme. Olga 

 Fedtschenko and her son, Mr. Boris Fedtschenko, 

 both well-known authorities on the flora of ! 

 Turkestan. The route of the Danish expedition 

 v.as followed in both cases, so that Alcock is still 

 our only authority for the area investigated by 

 him. The systematic results of these journeys 

 have been incorporated by Mme. Fedtschenko 

 in a "Flore du Pamir," published in 1903, with 

 supplements in 1904, 1905, 1907, and 1909. How- 

 ever, our knowledge of High Pamir plants is prob- 

 ably still incomplete. All the valleys investigated 

 by Alcock, by the Danish party, and by the 

 Fedtschenkos are drained by rivers which flow to 

 join the Oxus, and, even as regards these Pamirs, 



NO. 2687, '^OL. 107] 



vegetation of the actual undulating valley-floor 

 and of the major portion of the downs and slopes 

 enclosing the valleys ; patches of alpine meadow 

 along brooks fed by melting snows ; alpine 

 meadows close under the snow-line ; and willow- 

 thickets in one particular sheltered ravine in the 

 Jaman-tal. In summarising his results 



Fedtschenko has grouped these associations, with 

 an additional salt-marsh-association, in three dis- 

 tinct plant-formations — meadows, subdivided into 

 alpine patches, damp-meadows, and salt-marshes ; 

 stony wastes, including what he terms " Eurotia 

 desert" and the vegetation of the bluffs leading 

 from the valley-floor to the riverside haughs ; 

 and woody formation, including the Myricaria 



