PTE It 
The vegetation is exceedingly scanty. At long intervals 
small stunted bushes of Halostachys caspica may be seen, a 
leafless dwarf-bush with assimilating shoots like those of Sa- 
licornia. 
Halocnemum strobilaceum, a small bush, distinguished by 
its globular dwarf-shoots, has a similar appearance. Also 
Lycium ruthenicum is a bush with fleshy cylindrical leaves; 
like the other two it scarcely attains the height of one foot 
on this wet saline soil, but under favourable circumstances 
it may become many times larger. (See for instance the 
chapter on the riverside thickets). 
A number of annual species are also characteristic for 
the salt-desert, or may be found there. The more important 
of these are: Salicornia herbacea, Halopeplis pygmaea (this 
has exceedingly succulent, thick and almost globular leaves), 
Suæda setigera, arcuala, corniculata etc., Bienertia cycloptera, 
Halogeton glomeratus, Statice leptostachya and spicata, species 
of Salsola, (S. crassa, obtusifolia etc.) and Halimocnemis which, 
however, usually occurs more frequently on somewhat drier 
soil. The same holds good for Frankenia pulverulenta and 
the prostrate undershrub Frankenia hirsuta, also for Anabasis, 
some species of which are herbaceous perennials, some under- 
shrubs, and all with leafless assimilating shoots. Other her- 
baceous perennials are Statice otolepis with broad leaves 
arranged in rosettes, and Aeluropus littoralis, a prostrate bluish- 
grey grass. 
My experience is that Aeluropus, Halostachys, Halocnemum 
and Salicornia are the species most frequently met with on 
“Ssor”. On one occasion near Chodsheli (in July) I found 
Phragmites communis in a locality of this kind. The soil 
was moist and brown at the depth of a few centimetres, but 
the surface was dry, white and dusty with salts. The Phrag- 
mites plants were small, and with surface-runners as when 
the species grows on wet sand in the north of Europe, but 
these runners did not exceed 30 cm. in length. Tamarix 
bushes, half a metre high, were growing scattered along with 
Phragmites. 
The species mentioned above are all Halophytes. Most. 
of them are Chenopodiaceae and belong to the succulent, 
