1919.] Notes on the Vegetation of Seistan. 277 
indiscriminately and do not form zones of growth. Here also 
the vegetation is mainly a phragmitetum, but beds of T'ypha 
Typha or the representative of the third genus. The two latter 
grow to a great height, at least twelve to fifteen feet. 
In some places these mingled reed-beds extend out into 
permanent water for several miles. They are traversed in all 
of the Phragmites are often covered wi my masses of grey- 
ish filamentous algae; Vallisneria spiralis (no specimens of 
which were actually preserved) is uncommon, with occa- 
sional plants of Potamogeton lucens. 
The channels, in which the water is only four or five feet 
deep in winter, open out occasionally into little pools only a 
few yards across but rather deeper and free o 
-are filled by dense masses of Potamogeton pectinatus, mingled 
with Characeae, Naias major and Potamogeton perfoliatus, 
the first-mentioned species being much more abundant than 
beds, sometimes as much as a hundred yards across, but, ex- 
cept for a scanty growth of Valiisneria round the edges, these 
are devoid of macroscopic vegetation; the bottom consists o 
black and very malodorous mud. The larger pools are prob- 
ably cleared by the people who live round the lake, for they 
and have a very ragged look. The 7'ypha has mostly shed its 
seeds, which blow all over the country with those of Phragmites, 
of the leaves of the Vallisneria, which was observed in flower, 
were dead and brown, while the tips of the shoots of P. 
pectinatus, which was fruiting on the surface, were white and 
