ARTE 
galus filicaulis and camphylotrichus, Plantago lachnantha, Tri- 
bulus terrestris. 
Here and there in patches are found the stiff-haired 
Chenopod Halocharis hispida, or Bassia sedoides, and often 
on saline spots there is the very small succulent Tetradiclis 
tenella. 
Noteworthy amongst the perennials which bloom in 
the spring are a fine red Tulipa sp., Ixilirion Pallasii, with 
blue blossoms, Allium Tschulpias and other species, Gagea 
reticulata, the tuberous geophytes Geranium tuberosum and 
Leontice incerta, besides Iris caucasica, falcifolia, etc. 
Eremostachys labiosa (fig. 7), a foot-high Labiate with 
handsome Acanthus-like foliage and large light flowers is so 
plentiful in places that the green grass is dotted over; it has 
tubers and is a hemicryptophyte like Ferula Asa foetida. 
This latter also dominates large areas in some places with 
its large yellowish-white compound umbels rising a metre or 
more above the ground, in other places it is represented 
only by rosettes of large dissected leaves which are already 
turning yellow at the end of May; the plant has tubers and 
thick rhizomes. 
Rheum tataricum occurs locally spreading its large bossed 
leaves, a metre wide over the ground. I have not seen it in 
bloom, but to judge from an illustration published by Tan- 
FILJEW (1903 p. 390) the inflorescence is strongly branched 
and rather low. In the middle of May the leaves are already 
turning yellow. 
Other hemicryptophytes found during spring in the semi- 
desert are: Astragalus Alopecias with vigorous prostrate shoots 
which have multipinnate silver-white leaves and dense yellow 
flower-heads, A. sogdianus, A. macronyæ with its yellow 
blossoms on short stalks at the base of the long leaves, A. 
mucidus, flexus, orbiculatus, Pelunnikowi and other species, 
Solenanthus petiolaris, Gentiana Olivieri, several species of Scor- 
zonera with tubers, Taraxacum sp. Dianthus crinitus and an- 
gulatus, Ranunculus Sewerzowi, oxyspermus and other species, 
Haplophyllum lasianthum, Lepidium Draba, Andrachne tele- 
phioides, Onosma hispidum, Achillea micrantha, Cachrys didyma, 
Carex stenophylla var. desertorum, species of Carum, Peucedanum, 
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