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afforded to the dormant shoot-apices. In countries where the 

 conditions are always favourable the Fanerophytes are domi- 

 nant, their dormant buds being attached to branches which 

 project freely into the air. The group thus includes shrubs 

 and trees. RAUNKLER subdivides them into four groups accor- 

 ding to size. Only the two lower of these groups are repre- 

 sented in the Transcaspian desert namely Microfanerophytes 

 (2 8 metres) and Nanofanerophytes (less than 2 metres) 

 whereas Mega- and Mesofanerophytes are absent. In the 

 second column of our list Fanerophytes are denoted by F. 



The next group is the Chamaephytes. The dormant 

 buds of this group are found on the surface of the ground 

 or just over it. In the former case they are plants with 

 above-ground creeping and persistent shoots; in the latter 

 case they are cushion-plants or undershrubs, the latter being 

 conspicuous by their stunted stature and by the distal or 

 apical parts of the year-shoots dying away during the unfav- 

 ourable season. Chamaephytes are denoted by Ch. 



Then follow the Hemicryptophytes, with their dormant 

 buds situated in the uppermost soil just in the surface, while 

 the aerial shoots are not perennial. In the list they are 

 denoted by H. 



The Cryptophytes form the fourth group, characterised 

 by the dormant buds being subterranean or subaquatic. 

 They include aquatic and marsh- plants denoted by H H and 

 Geophytes denoted in the list by G. 



The Therophytes or plants of the favourable season are 

 the best protected, as they live through the unfavourable 

 season as seeds, they are thus annual plants and are denoted 

 in the list by Th. 



An attempt has been made to allocate each species in 

 the list to the growth-form to which it belongs. This has 

 been no easy task because of incomplete knowledge of many 

 species, especially as descriptions and herbarium specimens 

 are very often unsatisfactory in this respect. It is therefore 

 probable that some mistakes have been made. Some will 

 no doubt neutralize others, but later on it will be shown 

 that the results arrived at by enumeration agree fairly well 

 with statistics from other areas with similar conditions of 



