34 



aceous perennials rise above the lower, brightly coloured 

 ground-vegetation. The following herbaceous perennials are 

 given for the asiatic steppe: Eremurus, Eremoslachys, Astra- 

 galus, Cousinia, Centaurea and several Umbelliferae. 



4. The Sand-desert occupying about half the area 

 of Transcaspia is the most recent geological formation. Its 

 flora is very rich, and during the best season, April and May, 

 it looks like a luxuriant garden. The plants include shrubs 

 also annual and perennial herbs, but the shrubs are the most 

 characteristic. This rich and extensive "flora or formation" 

 has more definite limits than the others, its plants are depend- 

 ent on the sand and do not migrate to other soils. The 

 plants of the loess-deserts and the riverside thickets may inter- 

 mingle or pass out on to the sand, but sand-plants are never 

 found on loess soil. Saxaul grows both on loess and sand, 

 nay thrives even better on the latter especially on "Ssor" 

 covered by sand, but bushes like Cailigonum or Ammoden- 

 dron we look for in vain on the clay plain. 



ANTONOW mentions as the most typical sand -bushes: 

 Cailigonum , Ephedra, Ammodendron , Eremosparton, Salsola 

 Arbuscula, Astragalus dendroides, Haloxylon Ammodendron. - 

 These bushes attain a heigth of l l /a 3 Arshin (about 1 2,io 

 metres), sometimes under specially favourable conditions they 

 may be 2 Sashen high (about 4,2 metres). The stems are short 

 and bent, with a low and richly branched crown. The leafage 

 is very poor. The root-system in several of them is strongly 

 developed. In Saxaul and Cailigonum, radical branches may 

 be seen on the surface between the dunes giving rise to new 

 shoots and creeping sometimes for a distance of 5 7 Sashen 

 (about 10,5 14,7 metres), so that these bushes play an impor- 

 tant part in binding the sand. Still more important in this 

 way are: Aristida pungens (0,7 1 metre high) which grows 

 as a rule on the tops of the dunes, and Carex physodes which 

 frequents more sheltered places among the dunes, and there 

 weaves the sand together with its tangled roots. These two 

 he calls the "conqueror and regent" of the sand-desert. 



The following are given as representatives of the remain- 

 ing herbaceous vegetation: Delphinium camptocarpum, Hype- 

 coum pendulum, Roemeria refracta, Malcolmia africana, Spiro- 



