IE > 
counted. The wood is brittle, for which reason providence 
has not furnished this tree with leaves, for if leaves were 
present a slight gust of wind would break the stem. 
The next account from the lowlands of Transcaspia is 
ALEXANDER LEHMANN’s “Reise nach Buchara und Samarkand”. 
In the years 1841—1842 LEHMANN, in the capacity of na- 
turalist, accompanied a Russian envoy to the Emir of Buchara, 
but he died shortly after his return to Russia. The very large 
collections of plants made by him were examined and des- 
cribed by AL. BUNGE, and this book is still a standard work. 
Lehmann’s notes on the journey were published in 1852, 
after revision by G. v. HELMERSEN. The account contains 
occasional remarks on the scenery of the country, and short 
lists of plants from different localities, but one feels that the 
material has not been revised by one who knows the country 
from personal observation; it lacks those comprehensive 
comments, which convey a general view to the mind of the 
reader and make of the work a connected whole. _ 
The next work to be dealt with is Borszczow’s Russian 
memoir: “Contribution to the Geography of Plants in the 
Aralo-Caspian countries” (1861)'). This begins with a short 
topographical-geological survey of the country. In the intro- 
duction to the phytogeographical part of the work we find 
the following remarks: 
“The flora of the Aralo-Caspian countries is only partly 
the flora of the steppes; to a great extent it is a desert- 
flora, characterised by the prevalence of bushes and under- 
shrubs with herbs growing below, or by the almost ex- 
clusive occurrence of the first-named. This is the first 
physiognomical feature of the region we are dealing with. 
The second characteristic is the general poverty of 
the plant-covering. The vegetation develops with tbe greatest 
difficulty —-one might say reluctantly — on a soil con- 
taining an abundance of salts, which is continually scorch- 
ed by the merciless rays of the sun and only rarely re- 
freshed by a light rain. It does not cover the area uni- 
1) Borszczow’s ‘‘Ueber die Natur des Aralo-Caspischen Flachlandes”’ 
(1860) contains an orographical description of the area. 
