1871.] The District of Dera Ismail Khan, Trans-Indus . 7 
1 Panderia pilosa,’ and then a small thorny herb called ‘ jawasa,’ 
1 jawahan,’ or camel thorn, from which in default of ‘ kashas,’ our 
tatties are made. This also, as its name implies, is a favourite with 
camels. 
While these are the plants on which the eye rests when one 
rides across the plains, others, very different in character will be 
noticed in a morning walk at Shaiklibudm. There, among trees, 
are the ‘phalahi,’ one of the prettiest of acacias, the ‘kau’ or 
wild olive, some six feet in height with dark foliage and a hard 
close-grained wood, the ‘ pastuwanna’ or Grrewia oppositifolia, 
and more showy than all the rest the 1 reodan’ or * rori,’ which is 
covered in the month of Tune with gorgeous orange blossoms. 
Interspersed with these, and more characteristic of the scenery 
than any of them, is the dwarf palm or ‘ mzarai,’ chamserops Kit- 
chiana, carelessly described by some travellers as an aloe. This, 
like the date palm, is of value for the manufacture of matting. Pass¬ 
ing from these, all of which except the dwarf palm attain the sta¬ 
ture of trees, our imaginary visitor at Shaiklibudm will notice the 
‘ shamshad,’ or so-called bog myrtle, which makes such a capital 
hedge row to our Indian gardens; the i panir’ or withania coa- 
gulans, a shrub with light coloured leathery leaves, and two 
other not such well known shrubs, the ‘ karguna’ and the ‘ chun- 
j a wall.’ 
The irrigation of the district is peculiar, and if this were an offi¬ 
cial paper, would bear a minute and detailed description. The 
country is intersected by mountain torrents, and the water which 
these bring down in their flushes, is arrested and spread over the 
country by large embankments or ‘ bands’ of earth, built across 
the beds of the torrents. Chief among these intermittent rivers is 
the Luni. It is turned northwards out of its natural course by one 
set of ‘ bands,’ and then stopped and spread over the country by 
another series which are broken, one after the other, to be recon¬ 
structed when the flushes are over. The sub-division of the water 
to individual fields is effected in much the same way, indeed a field 
is called a ‘band,’ the word ‘ khet’ being almost unknown. 
These dams or weirs are prepared by the joint and compulsory 
labour of the villages benefiting by them, each village contributing 
