na 
sea, and the more rounded sand-hills (“Hügelsand”) “like a 
smooth sea with a swell on”. On the crests grow Halimo- 
dendron, Ammodendron, Saxaul and Tamarisks, while the hol- 
lows between them are covered by Capsella elliptica. The 
“sand-steppe” he likens to an almost calm sea which in spring 
bears a rich bloom of Capsella elliptica, Rheum caspicum, 
Calligonum, Atraphaxis, Lyeium, Zygophyllum, Nitraria, Poa 
bulbosa, Bromus tectorum, Avena sterilis, Hordeum murinum, 
Stipa barbata. — Rapper also describes the sand mounds in 
the north-western parts of the territory; here in the valleys 
and on the slopes of the mounds, Saxaul attains its greatest 
development, while Ammodendron Sieversti prefers the loose 
soil of the crests. 
The leafless desert shrubs occur almost exclusively where 
the sand is in motion; on old-established sand-hills we find 
for instance Prosopis Stephaniana, Heliotropium dasycarpum, 
Delphinium camptocarpum, species of Artemisia and Cousinia. 
— Only plants with tubers or deep running roots keep green 
long, the rest are quickly scorched. 
RADDE’s opinion is that the relatively luxuriant “sand- 
steppe” is the last stage, and that the moving sand will, if 
left to itself, gradually become covered with vegetation and 
then the country will in time become level. 
RADDE'S long account of his travels contains many other 
descriptive notes on vegetation, but it is unnecessary to enter 
into further detail here as the work is easily accessible and 
other references will be made to it later. 
The description of Asiatic Russia by M. P. DE SEMENOV 
(1900) also gives the more important features of the vegetation 
of Turkestan. He describes the trees of the sand-deserts, 
Haloxylon, Salsola, Calligonum etc. (“des arbres sans ombre, 
sans fraîcheur et sans vie”) and records their importance in 
binding the sand. There is also an account of the vegetation 
of the clay-deserts of Artemisia, Salsolaceae, Zygophyllum and 
large Umbelliferae with their short-lived flowering period in 
spring, of the chenopodiaceous vegetation of the “‘salt-steppe” 
with its seasonal changes of colour and the dense thickets 
of poplars and reeds on the river-banks. The work also 
contains a number of geological, meteorological, and other 
