892 Lieut Irwin's Memoir of Afghanistan. [Nov. 



times gathered, and even sold at a considerable price, is covered with 

 several sharp prickles, which readily attach themselves to clothes, and 

 are with difficulty taken out. However insignificant they may seem, 

 they are the chief annoyance to a traveller. Beyond the Indus, and a 

 short distance from its banks, we do not find that grass which yields 

 the khus* so useful during the hot winds in India. In these countries 

 tattees are not much used except in the hottest season, and then only by 

 people of condition. The plant employed is the Juwasat of India, in 

 Peshawar called Jhoy, and by those who speak Persian Shooturkhar, 

 from its being a common food of the camel; besides these uses, in 

 some places it yields manna, for example, the neighbourhood of Can- 

 dahar and Hirat, and the banks of the Chilchick (see paragraph 45.) 

 This precious substance exudes from it after the spring rains are over, 

 and is collected by merely shaking it off. It is also produced in Toorkis- 

 tan, on the dark barked or cultivated willow, and from some other 

 plants. 



2nd. Of Shrubs. 



125. These countries have shrubs and low trees of several varieties 

 and in great abundance. It may be remarked that they are most 

 abundant in unfertile and uncultivated places ; whether it be that such 

 is their peculiar situation, or that they occupy places refused by the herbs 

 and succulent plants and by the timber trees I know not. Some 

 insinuate their roots among rocks and loose stones; some grow on 

 the hardest clays and merest sands, and in the driest climates ; and 

 others overspread the salty deserts. Though humble, they are how- 

 ever useful, and demand some of our attention. 



126. Some furnish food from their roots, barks, flowers, or fruits. 

 The last only is worth mentioning, and the most remarkable species is 

 the barberry, which abounds in the east of Toorkistan, the Ymak coun- 

 try, the skirts of the great northern range, and some parts of that of 34°. 

 It is little cultivated, but that which is raised in Ghaeen is much 

 esteemed. The plant in India called Jhurbeereeat extends to the foot of 

 the hills in the northern and western directions. The Byr, which is said 

 to be merely a cultivated species of the barberry, is raised in Peshawar 

 but not in Khoorasan or Toorkistan, where instead of it is cultivated the 

 Connal,afruit which much resembles it in taste and properties, and is 

 found wild in the hill of Bajour, in Pukhlee, some parts of Persian 

 Khoorasan, and probably many other quarters. On the low hills in 

 the east of Afghanistan, and those south of Kushmeer, which yield 



* Andropogon muricatum. Linn, 

 f Hedysarum Alhaji. Linn. 



