BOTANICAL GEOGRAriTY. 



309 



With reference to the greater tendency of vegetables to have 

 wider distribution, we may observe that, in all divisions of nature, 

 some objects have wider distribution than others. The vegetable 

 instances may be the very ones so characterised. And again, it 

 appears that some birds of a small order, Raptores, are common to 

 America and Asia, so that after all, the exception is in favour 

 perhaps of vegetables, for 50 out of 600, are not perhaps equal 

 to the Raptorial birds common to both continents, particularly when 

 considered in relation to the numerical proportion of the order. 

 Out of 600 Congo plants 1-12 are natives also of India, and 

 South America ; and further on it is said, in the above number of 

 plants, no less than 22 species are enumerated as common to Equa- 

 laorit Africa, India, and America. 



Steppes ^of Central Asia. 



M. Meyendorflf* alludes to the absence of dews during the hot season 

 throughout the steppe of Kirghiz, he also mentions p. lOG, that even 

 so soon as April, vegetation had become yellow. Mountains of Ala 

 Tagh, East of Khokan, present several peaks covered with perpetual 

 snow. Mont Talku, he states, P. 129, is covered with superb forests 

 which furnish Kouldga with wood. Cultivation consists of Wheat, Peas, 

 Sesanmm, Beans, Uolcus Sacoharum, Cotton, Melons, llice of bad 

 quality he says, is largely cultivated in Miankan and is also imported from 

 Chehriesby. Gardens are very numerous, and generally very large. 

 Flowers — Roses, Blue flax, Asters, Mallows, Poppys, Sun-flowers, 

 Garden shrubs, none but Cercis siliquastrum. 



Fruit trees. Quince Peaches, Apricots, Cherries, Apple, wild Pears, 

 Prunes, Figs, Pomgranite, Grapes, Mulberries, Manna from a plant 

 called Tikan found abundantly in the desert of Carchi S. S. E. about 

 00 miles from Bokhara. 



Vegetables are, Turnips, red Beet, Cabbage, Radishes, Carrots, 

 Onions, Cucumbers, and excellent Melons. 



No forests in the western country, all wood used in building is floated 

 down in rafts from Sumurcund, All the trees in the Oasis are cultivated, 

 as Willows, Poplars, Planes, and a tree called in Hersian Goudgoum or 

 Goudjoum narba. No fuel in Bokhara but the branches of these trees, 

 and brush wood brought from the neighbouring deserts. 



Steppes of Kirghiz. 

 Northern part between Orenburg and Bokhara, a great number of 

 grasses, occur, Poa, Stipa, Elymus, Carex. Rosacea}, PotentiHa, Rosa 

 Prunus, Araygdahis, Spiraea. Liliacese, Tulipa, Allium, Leguminosae, 

 Astragalus Glycyrrhiza, Spartlum, some Ranunculaceje, semi-flosculos 

 and miai. Ferula, Llheum, Capsicum, Salsola. Leguminosae as Astra- 

 gali and Robinia? predominate among thickets of Poplars, Willows and 

 brush-wood found in favourable places, along the course of rivers, Ta- 

 marix still more frequent. 



* Voyage d' Orcnbourg a Boukhara, Paris, 1826. 



