=. 14 
in the list grow in Pamir all under especially favourable 
conditions, in marshes or on shady monntain sides. 
The Alai Plain, the summer paradise of the Kirghiz, 
which forms the southern boundary of the Alai mountains, 
is watered by the river Kisil Su, (the red stream) whose 
waters like the soil of the plain are rusty red. The plain 
near Sary Tash (3,270 mètres above sea level) is flat or 
slightly rolling and furrowed by many small streams flowing 
into Kisil Su. On June 27 the soil was dry and dusty when 
dug, yet the vegetation did not impress one as being xero- 
phytic. It is composed of a short green-sward of grasses 
and Cyperaceae dotted with many gay flowers. The main 
plants are Festuca ovina var. vallesiaca, Carex stenophylla var. 
desertorum (both cespitose) and the tiny annuals, Ceratoce- 
phalus orthoceras and Alyssum desertorum. Common too were 
Avena desertorum (cespitose), Anemone Tschernaewi, a rather 
low tuberous species, Astragalus Danieli Kochi, A. tibetanus, 
Pulsatilla albana, Carex nitida var. conglobata and Leptaleum 
filifolium. Of these the latter only is an annual. Alchimilla 
sp., Draba media (annual), Psychrogeton turcestanicum, Chorispora 
macropoda, and Sisymbrium mollisimum (perennials), were found, 
as well as the following mosses, Tortula Paulsenit on a slope 
near a stream and Bryum leptoglyphodon at the mouth of a 
marmot burrow. The vegetation both in appearance and 
species composition resembles closely that of Olgin Lug and 
may best be compared to a meadow. Here, on the Alai 
Plateau, the plants are smaller and less well developed 
than on Olgin Lug, and the absence of trees is natural, as 
Sary Tash lies above the timber line. Near the river or its 
tributaries on moist ground we found the delicate little 
Ranunculus flexicaulis, Taraxacum paludosum, Carex Regelii, 
Scirpus alpinus (= pumilus), Erysimum altaicum, Polygonum 
cognalum and Primula algida. 
On the southern side of the Alai Plateau, near Bordo- 
Ba, there was a little pond with Hippuris vulgaris and Pota- 
mogeton gramineus. Here too, in a stony, dried-out river bed, 
Rheum rhizostachum, a species under a foot tall, was growing. 
