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cultivation and with species originating from the neighbouring 
mountains. Noteworthy amongst the desert species are: Alhagi 
Camelorum, Salsolaceae, Zygophyllum and Peganum Harmala; 
the mountain plants are represented by Leontice Leontopodium, 
Glaucium luteum and Carex stenophylla, while the plants which 
frequent the neighbourhood of cultivated land are mainly 
Cruciferae and Papaveraceae (Roemeria); and often Hordeum 
murinum, Spinacia tetrandra, Arnebia cornuta, etc. 
From the south-eastern part of Transcaspii, on the 
borders of Afghanistan, Korsuinsky describes the" vegetation 
at the foot of the Paropamisus chain. Here the landscape 
is undulating (“Badchis”) with a sandy, but rarely a loose 
surface. The lower, more gently sloping parts of the “Badchis” 
have a vegetation which Korshinsky calls “sand-steppe”. It 
consists ‘exclusively of herbaceous plants or undershrubs 
which, according to the relief of the locality or to variations 
in dryness of the soil, stand more or less scattered, but always 
singly so that they do not form a green sward.” This picture 
recalls the steppes on the black-soils in the south of Russia. 
Just as Stipa pennata is there, so Stipa barbata is here in Asia 
the characteristic plant. Moreover there are several species 
of Convolvulus, Onobrychis, Ranunculaceae, Acanthophyllum, 
Aegilops, etc., and in the most southern part Dorema and 
Ferula. 
The higher parts of the “Badchis” have a different ve- 
getation to some extent characterised by other plants, such 
as Amygdalus horrida and Pistacia vera. This vegetation 
cannot be regarded as belonging to the lowlands, and so 
need not to be further detailed. 
KORSHINSKY also gives a short description of the river 
sides with their thickets of Phragmites and poplars, especially 
P. euphratica. The irrigation of the cultivated land is also 
noted, and the plants cultivated there. His interesting work 
will be referred to again later. 
Rappe’s memoir: “Transkaspien und Nord-Chorassan” 
(1899) also contains many valuable statements about the 
vegetation. 
He describes the hoof-shaped ‘“Barchans” devoid of ve- 
gelation so that the landscape looks like a stormy but frozen 
