— 38 — 



sea, and the more rounded sand-hills ("Hiigelsand") '-like a 

 smooth sea with a swell on". On the crests grow Halimo- 

 dendron, Ammodendron, Saxaul and Tamarisks, while the hol- 

 lows between them are covered by Capsella elliptica. The 

 "sand-steppe" he likens to an almost calm sea which in spring 

 bears a rich bloom of Capsella elliptica, Rheum caspicum, 

 Calligonum, Atraphaxis, Lycium, Zggophyllum, Nitraria, Poa 

 bulbosa, Bromus tectorum, Avena sterilis, Hordeum murinum, 

 Stipa barbata. — Radde also describes the sand mounds in 

 the north-western parts of the territory; here in the valleys 

 and on the slopes of the mounds, Saxaul attains its greatest 

 development, while Ammodendron Sieversii prefers the loose 

 soil of the crests. 



The leafless desert shrubs occur almost exclusively where 

 the sand is in motion; on old-established sand-hills we find 

 for instance Prosopis Stephaniana, Heliotropium dasycarpum, 

 Delphinium camptocarpum, species of Artemisia and Cousinia. 

 — Only plants with tubers or deep running roots keep green 

 long, the rest are quickly scorched. 



Radde's opinion is that the relatively luxuriant "sand- 

 steppe" is the last stage, and that the moving sand will, if 

 left to itself, gradually become covered with vegetation and 

 then the country will in time become level. 



Radde's long account of his travels contains many other 

 descriptive notes on vegetation, but it is unnecessary to enter 

 into further detail here as the work is easily accessible and 

 other references will be made to it later. 



The description of Asiatic Russia by M. P de Semenov 

 (1900) also gives the more important features of the vegetation 

 of Turkestan. He describes the trees of the sand-deserts, 

 Haloxylon, Salsola, Calligonum etc. ("des arbres sans ombre, 

 sans fraicheur et sans vie") and records their importance in 

 binding the sand. There is also an account of the vegetation 

 of the clay-deserts of Artemisia, Salsolaceae, Zygophyllum and 

 large Umbelliferae with their short-lived flowering period in 

 spring, of the chenopodiaceous vegetation of the "salt-steppe" 

 with its seasonal changes of colour and the dense thickets 

 of poplars and reeds on the river-banks. The work also 

 contains a number of geological, meteorological, and other 



