37 



cultivation and with species originating from the neighbouring 

 mountains. Noteworthy amongst the desert species are: Alhagi 

 Camelorum, Salsolaceae, Zygophyllum and Peganum Harmala; 

 the mountain plants are represented by Leontice Leontopodium, 

 Glaucium luteum and Carex stenophylla, while the plants which 

 frequent the neighbourhood of cultivated land are mainly 

 Cruciferae and Papaveraceae (Roemeria)\ and often Hordeum 

 murinum, Spinacia tetrandra, Arnebia cornuta, etc. 



From the south-eastern part o Transcaspia, on the 

 borders of Afghanistan, KORSHINSKY describes the vegetation 

 at the foot of the Paropamisus chain. Here the landscape 

 is undulating ("Badchis") with a sandy, but rarely a loose 

 surface. The lower, more gently sloping parts of the "Badchis" 

 have a vegetation which Korshinsky calls "sand-steppe". It 

 consists "exclusively of herbaceous plants or undershrubs 

 which, according to the relief of the locality or to variations 

 in dry ness of the soil, stand more or less scattered, but always 

 singly so that they do not form a green sward." This picture 

 recalls the steppes on the black-soils in the south of Russia. 

 Just as Stipa pennata is there, so Stipa barbata is here in Asia 

 the characteristic plant. Moreover there are several species 

 of Convolvulus., Onobrychis, Ranunculaceae, Acanthophyllum, 

 Aegilops, etc., and in the most southern part Dorema and 

 Ferula. 



The higher parts of the "Badchis" have a different ve- 

 getation to some extent characterised by other plants, such 

 as Amygdalus horrida and Pistacia vera. This vegetation 

 cannot be regarded as belonging to the lowlands, and so 

 need not to be further detailed. 



KORSHINSKY also gives a short description of the river 

 sides with their thickets of Phragmites and poplars, especially 

 P. euphratica. The irrigation of the cultivated land is also 

 noted, and the plants cultivated there. His interesting work 

 will be referred to again later. 



RADDE'S memoir: "Transkaspien und Nord-Chorassan" 

 (1899) also contains many valuable statements about the 

 vegetation. 



He describes the hoof-shaped "Barchans" devoid of ve- 

 getation so that the landscape looks like a stormy but frozen 



