70 



cal. This is also the type of growth-form of Haloxylon Am- 

 modendron, Salsola Arbuscula (figures 12 and 38), subaphylla 

 and verrucosa, when these species grow in the clay -desert, 

 but they have quite a different appearance when growing in 

 the sand-desert. Low shrubs of leafless Ephedra a/ata, species 

 of Calligonum and the succulent, salt - excreting Reaumuria 

 oxiana are similar in type. Smirnowia turkestana and various 

 species of Astragalus (A. Ammodendron, paucijugus, unifolia- 

 tus) are shrubs, sometimes a metre high, with inflated pods 

 and poorly developed foliage. Smirnowia has small entire cir- 

 cular leaves, while the Astragalus species have leaflets which 

 fall off quickly, leaving a persistent leaf-rarhis. 



In places where the ground-water is not too deep (e. g. 

 near oases or rivers) the following are characteristic shrubs: 

 Fresh green or greyish Tamarisks; the narrow-leaved Nitraria 

 Schoberi comparatively rich in foliage; Halimodendron argen- 

 teum, a silver-leaved thorny leguminous bush with large in- 

 flated pods ; Halostachys caspica and Halocnemum strobilaceum 

 both bushes with Salicornia-like shoots; Prosopis Stephania- 

 num a low mimosa-bush with pinnate leaves (probably oc- 

 curs also in very dry places); Lycium ruthenicum; the broad- 

 leaved Capparis spinosa, and the spiny rosaceous Hulthemia 

 berberifolia (I am not quite certain whether the last two 

 vegetate during summer). There are also Frankenia hirsuta, 

 Heliotropium dasycarpum, Statice suffruticosa, Alhagi Camelo- 

 rum, all regarded as undershrubs and mostly found in the 

 more favorable localities along with the perennials Peganum 

 Harmala, Zygophyllum Eichwaldii, Pluchea caspica, Inula cas- 

 pica, Dodartia orientalis (leafless) and Cressa cretica one of the 

 Convolvulaceae well covered with a foliage of grey salt-ex- 

 creting leaves. 



As summer-plants of the dry clay-desert we should in- 

 clude the Chamaephytes ! ) Anabasis aphylla and salsa, Arthro- 

 phytum sub uli folium, Nanophytum erinaceum and Noaea spi- 

 nosissima, all leafless or thorny-leaved stunted undershrubs ; 

 also Anabasis eriopoda, a leafless Hemicryptophyte *), and 

 finally a number of annuals. 



l ) See chapter 12. 



