AU 
cordata all had yellow blossoms, while Hedysarum songoricum, 
Onobrychis pulchella, Astragalus platyphyllus, Cousinia micro- 
carpa and Thymus serpyllum had red, Geranium collinum var. 
alpinum and Viola silvestris lilac, Lappula sp. and Myososlis 
arenaria blue and Silene brahuica, Astragalus alpinus and an 
undetermined lily white 
Climbing higher up we entered veritable mountain glens, 
their sides formed from a blue-black clay-slate and their 
bottoms filled with the strange conglomerates composed in 
part of very large stones cemented together with clay, which 
will be discussed further in Chapter II. Through these con- 
glomerates, which we found in the valleys also in Pamir, the 
rivers of to-day have forced their beds. High up, at Sufi 
Kurgan for instance, a little over 2,000 métres above sea 
level, we found on the disintegrated surface of the slate 
mountains, a poor scattered vegetation, with Ephedra dista- 
chya, green bushes a foot or two high, Arfemisia sp., Umbilicus 
Lievenii, Lagochilus Paulsenii and Oryzopsis holciformis var. 
songorica as its most important components. Stipa barbata 
var platyphylla which at great altitudes, (2,400 metres above 
sea level), is replaced by Stipa orientalis var. trichoglossa, was 
seen occasionally and also the acicular-leafed Arenaria Lede- 
bouriana, Polygonum acerosum, Astragalus macrotropis var. 
robustus, A. tibetanus, Sisymbrium brassiciforme and Sedum sp. 
I found Orchis turcestanicus, and Primula sibirica in the 
marshes, and in a cold mountain stream submerged mosses, 
Bryum Schleicheri var. latifolium and Philonotis calcarea. 
It was very striking that throughout lower Alai hardly a tree 
was to be seen. Near Gultsha, at a great distance up in the 
mountains a few scattered dark evergreens were discernible, 
presumably Juniperus excelsa, which B. FEDTSCHENKO men- 
tions from here, and which he assumes has been driven out 
by cultivation. Along the valley trails which we followed, 
single lonely poplars or willows, (Salix coerulea), were to be 
seen, always with tattered fragments of garments hanging on 
them. There is a belief current among the Kirghiz, who 
wander with their herds in these regions, to the effect that 
single trees, standing free, are sacred and capable of effecting 
a cure, when a rag, which has been in contact with a 
