ie RE Et 
and if these are allowed to germinate, then the vegetation (if 
such a word can be employed) becomes by degrees somewhat 
denser and other species appear. First and foremost come 
other switch-bushes: Calligonum, Salsola Arbuscula and sub- 
aphylla, Eremosparton, Saxaul and sometimes Ephedra alata. 
A desert covered with these shrubs is a most characteristic 
sight; to describe it the following lines by KORSHINSKY I. c. p. 4) 
may be cited: 
“They are bushes or small trees, from 1 to 4 or 5 
Arshins high (0,7 — 2,8 — 3,5 metres’), very characteristic 
both in their appearance and in their mode of growth. 
Their stems as a rule are short, bent and often very irre- 
gularly shaped on account of deep and long furrows. The 
branches are generally white or greyish, the leaves narrow 
and greenish-grey. Frequently there are no leaves at all, 
and they are replaced by the young branches which 
contain chlorophyll. Most of these ligneous plants grow 
very slowly and have an exceedingly hard but brittle wood, 
this is especially the case with Saxaul. These low trees 
stand widely apart, they do not cast the least shade, so 
that the soil under them is almost as dry and unfertile, 
almost as scorched by the rays of the sun as if there 
were no trees at all. 
No comparison is possible between this bushland and 
forest or scrub in temperate areas, and on the whole none 
of the expressions used in literature or science are adequate 
to describe them. They form a special type of vegetation, 
so unique and characteristic that I cannot believe it will 
ever fade from the memory af any one who has had a 
single opportunity of seeing it.” 
Only two of the switch-like trees and bushes have a 
luxuriant green appearance. They are Salsola Arbuscula and 
S. subaphylla (figures 12 and 13), especially the former. This 
plant has already been described (chap. 6) as frequent in dry 
clay-deserts, where it is a dry, stiff, prickly bush about half 
a metre high with shoit hard shoots and stiff plump leaves. 
1) This description deals with vegetation on more stable soil where 
the trees and bushes are lower. OE: 
