— 126 — 
This is a Hummock-desert. Earlier in the year there 
were probably numerous spring plants, but they have dis- 
appeared now. 
5. Atthe railway-station Chodsha Dawlet between Buchara 
and Tshardshui. June 10. 1899. 
The boundary of the oasis lies a short distance to the 
east of Chodsha Dawlet, but still far into the desert one sees 
well-preserved ruins of houses apparently not very old. The 
country has formerly been cultivated, but has been abandoned 
on account of scarcity of water; it is uncertain whether this 
is because the Serafshan river carries less water than formerly 
or whether more water is now utilised in its upper course. 
The soil here at Chodsha Dawlet is loose, fine, slightly 
drifting sand. The ground is flat, with some knolls or level 
surfaces of loess the original soil; sometimes with small white 
patches of powdery salt. In other places there are small 
dunes barely a metre high. Near the railway is a small wood, 
no doubt planted, of Saxaul, (Haloxylon Ammodendron). Here 
it is a shrub rather more than 3 metres high, with several 
stems, the outer ones bending obliquely outwards. Round 
the foot of each bush there is a hillock of slightly cohesive 
sand which partly owes its existence to the shelter of the 
plant, partly perhaps to mice whose holes are not hard to 
find in many of the hillocks. — The average distance 
between the Saxaul bushes is about 3—4 metres. On the 
level clay-flats, the bushes do not thrive well, they are sparser 
and any present are half dead. On the contrary Lycium 
ruthenicum is quite at home here, bushes of this species 
attain a height of over a metre. They are even more dreary 
looking than the Saxaul shrubs, dry, grey and stick-like. 
Smirnowia turkestana occurs in a few places as low shrubs 
together with the thick-leaved hemicryptophyte Zygophyllum 
Eichwaldiü. In other places I found Salsola inermis a grey 
herb, S. Kali and another grey annual Chenopodiacea with 
fleshy, hairy leaves (Halimocnemis sp.?); also a few green 
Alhagi Camelorum. These were the only plants found here, 
and they occurred very scattered. 
Walking towards the north one soon arrives at the end 
of the small wood. Here in the sand there were several 
