QUETTAH. 



341 



veral specimens having been caught here : presenting affinities obvi- 

 ously with the hare, and analogies with the Kangaroo. Macleod has 

 just given me, from his namesake of the 3rd Cavalry, a tadpole-like 

 animal, very similar to one from the Khasiya Hills. I fear it is a 

 tadpole, but I keep the specimen lest it should be a Lepidosiren. 



The orchards here consist of cherry, and a pomaceous tree which 

 also is cultivated at Shikarpore, and on the skirts occasionally of 

 willows, which, were they unmutilated, would be handsome trees. 

 The Punjabi name of the pomaceous one is Sai-oo, of the cherry or 

 plum Aloochah. 



Senecionoid glauca is extremely common towards the river, but is 

 not eaten by camels. In the streams arising from springs a 

 Myriophylloides is very common ; as also in some places, Ranunculus 

 aquaticus, Beccabunga, Mentha piperitioid, a Sicyoid, Juncus, 

 Conifera?, and Caricese, all small. 



Along the banks of the river, there is a good deal of a small thorny 

 shrub with white bark and fleshy clavato-spathulate leaves. The- 

 mopsis is extremely common, Crucifera glauca ditto, Peganum less 

 so, Achilleoides is very common. In damp spots a Lotus (out of 

 flower occurs). The ground is covered in many places with an 

 efflorescence of saltpetre, 



Quettah. — The country was so disturbed throughout the greater 

 part of the line, and attacks on followers so frequent, that I did not 

 go out so much during the last few days as I otherwise would. The 

 only plant that seems to a considerable extent local, is the larger 

 Asphodel, which is however found occasionally towards Kuchlak. 

 Within the last few days vegetation has rapidly progressed ; the 

 orchards bursting into leaf, and the whole plain, where uncultivated, is 

 assuming a greenish tint. I have nothing to add respecting the bota- 

 ny, except having found Ceratophyllum and two species of Chara, one 

 a very interesting species from having the joints furnished with semi- 

 reflexed, very narrow leaves, it is apparently Dioeceous, there is also a 

 Naiad, much like that found at Dadur. No Lemnae occur among the 

 vegetation : there is some sort of pea cultivated : but the chief object 

 is wheat, then next to it in extent is Lucerne, which is cultivated 

 in plots ; the ground being laid out as in wheat, so as to allow 

 of irrigation. 



The climate is variable ; rain generally falls every four or five days, 

 before this happens it becomes hot and hazy, afterwards it is very cold 

 and clear : the alternations are hence very great. From the ther- 



