76 



On this soil Reanmnria fruticosa was characteristic, a low bush 

 with closely set minute leaves covered with salt-crystals. Some 

 other species occurred on some small dunes, but these only 

 appeared one at a time on the stony soil. (See chap. 11). The 

 following Lichens were found on stones: Sarcogyne perileuca, 

 Placodinm Panlsenii, Acarospora interrupta. At Dana Sher Kala 

 not far from this place, there was a stony gravel plain with 

 very scattered small bushes of Salsola rigida behind which 

 hillocks of sand had drifted; this was the only species. 



At Ak-Yar (also on the Amu Darya) there is an undul- 

 ating plain of loess with splintered pieces of clay-slate and 

 knolls of the same rock in situ. The following plants were 

 scattered about, approximately 3 paces apart: Salsola rigida 

 and Arbuscula, Reanmnria oxiana, Saxaul and rarely Lycium 

 rnlhenicnm; all were stunted shrubs less than half a metre 

 high. The herbaceous species included Salsola carinata, Snaeda 

 sp. and Lepidinm obtnsnm. Depressions with a stiff fissured 

 clay were devoid of plants or bore only a few halophytes 

 (Halocnemum, Halimocnemis). 



At Pitnjak there was a gravel plain with Pegannm Har- 

 mala, Convolvulus eremophilns and Anabasis salsa, very scattered. 



At Kisel-Yi also situated south of Chiwa, we found hard 

 clay hills with many white stones, quite bare except in the 

 depressions where there were scattered plants of Halimocne- 

 mis macranlhera (an annual summer-plant with thick leaves) 

 Salsola rigida, low Saxaul bushes, Artemisia, Alhagi Camelo- 

 rnm. The last alone crept up the hillside here and there. 



Near Andidshan (Ferghana), very stony loess about a foot 

 thick formed a layer over stones and gravel. Here grew 

 (May 27 th ) Tamarisks not more than a metre high, Alhagi 

 Camelorum, Crambe orientalis (?), the thorny and silverhaired 

 undershrub Convolvulus fruticosus, Echinops sp., Astragalus 

 sp., etc.; the visit to this locality was a very brief one. 



Other localities were observed where the soil was rock 

 in situ or stone, but as these were covered by sand, partly 

 shifting, and as it seemed to me that there the sand was 

 mainly responsible for the character of the vegetation, they are 

 not included here. 





