RO TS 
_ 
formly, but appears in oases, between which stretch large 
tracts of quite bare soil. Even in the north-western part 
which has a more favourable situation and climate, and 
where the flora is more steppe-like in character, we look 
in vain for the luxuriant growth of the herbaceous plant 
forms which are a characteristic of the steppes of southern 
Russia and southern Siberia. It is not found here. The 
immediate neighbourhood of the vast burning deserts which 
occupy almost three-fourths of the whole area, and the 
insufficiency of the precipitation (!) have too great an in- 
fluence on the climate, moreover the soil itself possesses too 
few of the conditions which are necessary to produce a lux- 
uriant vegetation. The herb-covered steppe, the only refuge for 
the nomad and his numberless cattle, is here only a dry 
Stipa Steppe whose vegetation forms hardly anywhere a 
thick carpet; only in the river-valleys (and frequently not 
even there) do we find a somewhat richer development. 
Here, as throughout the whole of Aralo-Caspia, it is a 
few specially characteristic forms which prevail, they re- 
peat themselves continually so that the country has a very 
monotonous appearance. Other species are only subordinate 
to these. Where the character of the soil changes, these 
predominant species sometimes change very quickly and 
give place to others which in turn prevail until the soil 
changes again. This monotony and this repetition of cer- 
tain species over vast areas is the third characteristic of 
the vegetation of the Aralo-Caspian countries. It is no 
doubt a direct consequence of the uniformity of the cli- 
mate, which again is mainly dependent on the slight ver- 
tical relief of the surface. 
A fourth characteristic of the flora is the unfamiliar 
appearance of many of the plant-forms'). As soon as the 
Ural is crossed, a different zone of vegetation is entered 
upon, where the plants differ greatly from those living in 
the same latitude, but in areas with a different geogra- 
phical location, a different relief and different soil. Even 
1) Great poverty in Cryptogams is also a characteristic. 
(B.’s remark.) 
