1838.] of the protected SiJch States. 759 



dry seasons villages are often temporarily abandoned in consequence 

 of the failure of water. Therefore it is a custom that those who take 

 water out of a pond pay for it by digging and carrying out a basket full 

 of earth for every pot they fill with water, so that the cavity is gradu- 

 ally enlarged and deepened. 



The appearance of this part of the country is very peculiar. The 

 fields are as it were basins surrounded by long low rolling hillocks of 

 dry sand, either quite bare or clothed with a peculiar vegetation, and 

 are almost universally surrounded by high thick hedges to protect them 

 from the deer i these fences are made of dry thorns heaped loosely to- 

 gether, generally running along the summits of the sandhills, and be- 

 tween them lie the narrow roads barely wide enough for a hackery to 

 pass. 



The vegetation on these sandhills consists principally of a species 

 of Artemisia of a most delicious fragrance, and an aromatic species of 

 Andropogon resembling A. twarancusa. (Is either of these, or which 

 ©f them is the Nardus of Arrian ?) 



This Andropogon is much liked by cattle and is said to communicate 

 its peculiar flavor to the milk. Besides it are species of Cenchrus and 

 Pe7inisetum, one of which is a most disagreeable torment to walkers, the 

 sharp recurved hooks of its involucre fastening to one's clothes and 

 even to one's skin ; its seed however sometimes is used as food in times 

 of great scarcity. The leaves both of this species and of two or three 

 others which are indifferently termed dhamun are excellent fodder and 

 are the principal grass for horses instead of the dhub which is very 

 rare*. The madar y Calotropis Hamiltonii, with Cucumis- pseudo-colo- 

 cynthis and a species of Momordica also luxuriant on those barren heaps, 

 with a species of Clerodendrum the wood of which is used for obtain- 

 ing fire by friction, and two species of Zizyphus, Z.jujubu, and another, 

 peculiar I believe to this tract of country, with smooth glossy leaves and 

 globular purple fruit. 



The most abundant thorn however is the Jhand, Prosopis spicigeraf, 

 which covers barren spots as the Zizyphus does in other parts of India 



* This is remarkable for bearing on its roots a curious parasitical species of 

 Orobanche, with very thick stalks from one to four inches in diameter, full of 

 almost pure water, which it must have elaborated from the milky juice of the 

 madar, and derived from sandhills so dry that it is difficult to believe that so 

 much liquid could have been procured from them ; and what is more remarkable 

 is, that this parasite is only produced where the madar grows in the very driest 

 sandhills and only in this portion of the country. 



t When I first met this as a shrub I was unwilling to consider it as the Pro- 

 sopis on account of its large ovate stipules, that tree being described as exsti- 

 5 c 



