274 Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. [N.S., XV, 
was not the case with the tamarisk in other situations. The 
Halocnem on the contrary, which was also in flower, has a 
brownish colour and grows close to the ground in a way which 
recalls the growth of heather. while the Salsola forms small 
isolated clumps, each of which as a rule consists of a single 
plant. The Juncus is small and often has masses of salt adher- 
tions, less than a mile apart, differ exceedingly, those from the 
gullies being much more vigorous, growing considerably taller 
and above all having the leaves extremely stiff, sharp and up- 
right, forming, indeed, bayonet-like spikes. The same peculi- 
arity of the leaves is found in the reed but in it the whole 
plant is dwarfed, less than a quarter the size of the Phragmites, 
unquestionably the same species, that forms the beds of the 
naizar or reed-country of the edge of the Hamun. Not only 
is the whole plant dwarfed. but the inflorescence is even smaller 
in proportion than that of the normal variety, of which it has 
hardly one-tenth the dimensions, and the individual flowers 
are also abnormally small. While, therefore, in one species of 
grass, which is normally a desert species probably immune to 
salt, the dampness of the situation has proved a stimulant, in 
another, accustomed to damp but not to excessive salinity, the 
salt has acted as inhibitive of growth. The two species have, 
however, developed one peculiarity in common, namely the 
production of stiff spiky leaves. 
Probably the seasons have less effect on this holoplytic 
vegetation than they have even on that of the stony desert. 
III. Tue VrGetTatTion OF THE ALLUVIUM. 
Fewer observations were made on this vegetation than on 
that of the stony desert, but greater variability was observed. 
In the neighbourhood of Nasratabad or Shahr-i-Seistan, the 
capital of the district, the land is mostly either cultivated or 
fallow, being irrigated by means of a network of channels issu- 
ing from the Helmand. In fallow land, at any rate in winter, 
the dominant, often the only plant—and it is mostly dead—is 
the camelthorn (Alhagi camelorum). In other places a dwarfed 
orm of Prosopis spicigera is abundant. but there are areas in 
