LINNEAN SOCIETY OF LONDON. 127 
summer and winter, and night and day, are much intensified ~ 
the absence to the north of any mountain range which might hav 
afforded considerable shelter from the continuous blasts of bitterly 
wind in winter and of hot dry air in summer, coming from the 
vicinity not being sufficiently high to allow of perpetual snow, the 
water-supply is limited to the rivers Hari-rud and Murghab, and to 
a very few perennial springs. With these money conditions the 
result is, except under the ameliorating influence of a river, that 
cultivation under an altitude of 3500 ft. is inipoasilae without the 
aid of irrigation, and until the dew-line is gained it is a land totally 
devoid of trees or even shrubs. But as soon as this point is reached, 
Pistacia vera, Juniperus excelsa, and a Lonicera appear as forest 
trees, and wheat and barley no vaices need irrigation. y col- 
ections are chiefly composed of Northern Persian and - 
terranean, ) Persian and Ara forms, 
and Scind regions; besides a fairly represented local flora, com- 
prising in all probability one-sixth of the whole collection. I met 
with no indigenous Conifere, oe" Juniperus excelsa; but Pinus 
halepensis is cnltty ated. There were no oaks, nor any species of 
the genera disculus, Olea, or My pea: The tropical zone spoken o: 
extend to the north-west, owing to the excessive fall in the winter 
temperature and the sho riened summer, a conclusive proof of which 
is the absence of the date palm. The area of — (Kinjak 
is limited to the southern aspect of the Doshakh range. A few sub- 
tropical shrubs from Scind and the Punjab do sn ge to exist 
through the low winter temperatures, viz., Peganum Harmala, Pro- 
sopis Stephaniana, Alhagi Camelorum, and Capparis spinosa, with the 
grasses, Mrianthus Ravenne and Andropogon laniger. Populus Eu- 
phratica forms forests in the river- -beds, but as long as this tree 1s 
situated near water it is indifferent to altitude, as it is known to 
extend from Scind and the Punjab to Western Tibet up to a height 
~ 12,000 ft. A more curious extension is Haloaylon Ammodendron, 
m the aupeenals dry shifting desert sands of Balu ohn stan to the 
this area 
and Leguminose greatly preponderas over others, as wigan 
ha ave 2 been expected, containi = 81 and 80 ae pero > 
5, 
which we have described; besides others, for the description of 
which ears is not gangs material. Gramine@ follow closely wi 
61 species, none of which, however, are new, though many det 
eiiveraaly: interesting. There are 56 species of "Crucifera, several 
