1847.] Notes on the Botany of Sinde. 1 157 



a-third of the whole perhaps. The fruit of the remainder is injured 

 by tapping for the juice, from which sugar is manufactured. 



The plants of the coast are of a mixed and peculiar character, and 

 many of them belong to more northern genera. Serreea incana, Cav. 

 grows plentifully on the sand hills of the coast ; the only known species 

 of this genus, is a native of Succotra, and is described as being only 

 three inches high. The Kurrachee plant forms a bush two feet in 

 height, and when in flower is very pretty ; perhaps it may be a new- 

 species ? 



A very hoary Atriplex, not far removed from A. verruciferum, is also 

 very plentiful ; Ipomsea bilobata spreads over the sand in every direc- 

 tion, and Scsevola Taccada, Roxb. is abundant on the tops of the sand 

 hills, the berry is white at first but turns purple when ripe. A- new 

 species of iEgialitis is also found all along the coast, and a new shrubby 

 plant of the Paronychise, with the bark and almost the leaves of an 

 Equisetum. 



Cadaba Indica ? grows on the rocks at Minora point ; I also noticed 

 this plant in the Hala mountains, but am rather doubtful as to th e 

 species ; I have only seen the cucumber-shaped fruit which is made into 

 a pickle by the Sindeans. 



I shall now proceed to notice seriatim, such plants of my Herbari- 

 um as appear to me deserving of elucidation. 



Umbelliferce. • 



Indigenous plants of this class are rare in Sinde ; I have but one spe- 

 cimen from the Hala mountains which for the present I have referee! to 



1 . " Libanotus ;" the plant smells strong of asafcetida. 



Rhizophoracece. 

 I found a fresh flowering branch of a tree of this class floating in 

 the surf on the beach at Kurrachee, but no where detected living trees. 



2. It belongs to the Genus •' Ceriops" of Arnott ; the many 

 mouths of the Indus will doubtless afford others of this order. 



Cruciferce. 



3. A species of Farsetia abounds from Bhawulpoor, throughout 

 Sinde ; it is often the only food procurable for camels, who eat it greedi- 

 ly, along with a frutescent Crambe ? In the Hala mountains it is used 

 for the same purposes. The plant of this order, along with some others, 

 will form the subject of a future communication. 



