1847.] Notes on the Botany of Sinde. 1 155 



The Iitttle desert of Sinde flanks the base of the Hala range, vary- 

 ing from 10 to 25 miles (or more) in breadth, extending in a southerly 

 direction to beyond Meher, where it narrows to three or four miles, 

 and there are more or less extensive patches of desert nearly as far 

 south as the Munchaul Lake. In a northerly direction branches of the 

 desert extend to near Mittun Kote, flanking the base of the Boogtee 

 Beloch Hills (spurs of the Halas) upon which Deyrah and Kahun are 

 situated. This tract is sometimes called the Burshoree desert, from 

 the name of a halting-place on the other side, N. W. of Shikarpoor. 

 The soil is a hard baked yellow clay, often exhibiting proofs of lacustrine 

 or alluvial origin, generally extremely arid and devoid of all vegetation. 

 In some places even in the heart of the desert Salsolese are abundant, 

 in others the surface for miles is perfectly naked ; in many places saline 

 matter abounds, efflorescing and whitening the surface, or cementing the 

 soil, which crackles under the feet as if icebound ; saltpetre is or has 

 been manufactured at the southern end of the desert. It will be seen 

 that but for the Indus this desert would form a branch of the great 

 Jeysulmeer desert, which in some places south of Bhawulpoor, ap- 

 proaches the Indus so closely that its sands are poured into the stream, 

 hence we may expect the vegetation on the borders of both to be some- 

 what similar. 



Not far south of Bhawulpoor a species of " Anabasis," very like (if 

 not identical with) A. florida, makes its appearance ; this plant abounds 

 on the borders of the desert and on both banks of the Indus wherever 

 the desert approaches. 



The borders of the Sinde desert are usually belted with sand hills, 

 and outside them a belt of Acacia catechu, of greater or less breadth. 



I have already noticed Monsonia as existing on the western borders 

 of the desert, I also found it in desert places in lower Sinde. 



Antichorus (Corchorus) depressus, abounds on the desert borders, 

 particularly at Khangurh ; Physalis somnifera is also found here, and 

 extends into the hill valleys. In lower Sinde, south of Sewan, a species 

 of Euphorbia, very like E. pentagona, abounds in many places forming 

 impervious patches of jungle ; near Kotree, and also between that place 

 and Sewan I found an " Ochradenus," I believe identical with the 

 Egyptian O. baccatus, Delisle. Fagonia is abundant throughout Sinde, 



