ee 
Some of the depressions have been filled with water, but 
are now quite dried up and only contain thick incrustations 
of sodium and magnesium sulphates or common salt (see 
above p. 11). On the banks of the small lakes Salicornia is 
dominant both in and above the water. Most of the spe- 
cimens on shore were red, those in the water were generally 
green. Round the foot of each plant, including the dead 
ones, there was a granular mass of salt, which reached a 
couple of centimetres up the stalk. This must have been 
formed when the water was higher than now (analysis no. 4 
p. 11). The following plant-species were found on the bank 
of the lake. Aeluropus littoralis, low and withered Phragmites 
(this was in the middle of July), Scirpus affinis. and in the 
water Ruppia maritima. In a few places, a little way from 
the banks, low Tamarisk bushes, Alghagi Camelorum and Hali- 
mocnemis villosa were mixed with the Salicornias. 
These few observations will indicate that the vegetation 
is mainly the same as on “Ssor’, and that the difference 
between “Batpak” and the former is therefore scarcely of 
any oecological or phytogeographical importance, at any rate 
if the water-plants of the lakes are left out of consideration. 
“Takyr” is the name given to flat depressions, often of 
great extent (several kilometres) and which in a dry condition 
have a hard, clayey and slightly saline surface. They are 
often found in depressions among the dunes. In spring they 
are under water and from this fine particles of material trans- 
ported by water or wind are laid down. Thus, by degrees, 
stratified water-loess is formed and prevents the water from 
sinking into the ground. When “Takyr” are dry, the bottom 
is hard like a threshing floor and the surface cracks and 
peels off in crusts. These flats are, as a rule, perfectly de- 
void of vegetation, because, RADDE suggests, they dry up late 
in the year and at a time when seeds cannot germinate on 
account of the heat of the sun. I have never seen plants 
on “Takyr’, but RappE mentions that on certain low sand- 
hills which rise above the water during spring, a few Chen- 
opodiaceae may be found. Along the margins, that is where 
the water first subsides, a poor “Wermuth-flora” (Artemisiae), 
is also said to exist, and the stifl-leaved grass Crypsis aculeala 
