236 Memoranda on the Peshawur Valley. [ No. 3, 
uncommon in various localities, attaining a length of 4 feet and up- 
wards ; its scales are much valued as a medicine by some classes of 
Hindoos. The “ grave digger” gorkakh, gorkash (bij Hindi) is occa- 
sional. A fresh-water tortoise, shamshate, inhabits the rivers, and 
attains a length of upwards of two feet. In the drier and more sandy 
parts, the soil is burrowed by thousands of a kind of lizard, char- 
mukhke or charmushke, about a foot long, and I have repeatedly 
found live specimens of an allied, but amphibious animal, of consi- 
derably larger size, in water contained in hollows, on the hills around 
the valley. 
A characteristic bird is the obdra (otis) which is common in the 
drier, uncultivated parts and is interesting to the sportsman as it 
affords good hawking; as well as to the gastronome from a different 
point of view. 
Several species of serpents occur in the district, but almost all— 
of scores—that I have examined, had no poison-fang, and I have 
never actually known of a case of death from a serpent bite near 
Peshawur. 
In entering upon a detailed view of the Flora of Peshawur, I shall 
first give a list of all the plants I collected in the district with their 
periods of flowering, so far as this was noted by me, their fre- 
quency, and the native names of the more important species. 
Almost all the identifications are those of Dr. T. Thomson, my 
obligations to whom in this and other respects, it is impossible for 
me to overrate. 
Some remarks are added as to the geographical distribution of the 
Peshawur plants, followed by a few observations on the more note- 
worthy species. 
In this list, the plant is understood to grow in the plain of 
Peshawur, 2. e. about 1000 to 1500 feet above the sea, unless where a 
height is added, and all the native names are those in use by the 
Pushtu speaking inhabitants unless when otherwise stated. I have 
been careful to exclude all Pushtu names that I do not know to be 
in use in the Peshawur district. 
