that the natives in Bokhara told me they did not
take the trouble to gather i t ; but they use for
food the large white berries, both fresh and dried, as
well as made into a flour, and mixed with water for
a beverage, or with wheat flour for a paste, called
tut-halvah. The chief use of the Mulberry tree,
however, is for feeding silkworms, for which purpose
not the twigs merely, but all the branches are cut
off, and the tree reduced thereby to a pollard. In
the gardens of Kurama grow, in addition to the fore-
mentioned, Peaches, Apricots (which form the staple
o f Khokand gardens), Pomegranates, Apples, Pears,
Quinces, Plums, Almonds, more than a dozen varieties
o f Grapes, and Figs. Some of these last, of a whitish
colour, and smaller than the green fig commonly seen
in England, were offered us in the Tashkend bazaar.
Cucurbitaceous plants abound in Turkistan, among
which the Melons are of exquisite flavour. Gourds
(Cucurbita lagenarid) are grown in large numbers,
and serve the various purposes of tobacco boxes,
pipes, and water cruses. Amongst umbelliferous
plants Coriander is used as seasoning for food,
and as a carminative. For seasoning or against
flatulence, shabit, or sweet Fennel {A net hum fceni-
culum dulce), is used, which does not grow wild
in Turkistan, but is cultivated in kitchen gardens, as
is also another kind of Fennel (Nigella Romand).
The grain is greenish and oily. To these should
be added certain plants for dyeing, such as Khana,
giving a green powder, containing an essential oil.
On blotting-paper it gives a stain that evaporates,
whilst cold water infusion easily extracts from it a
pigment of a reddish colour. The colouring matter of
Spariak (or Ispariak, a recent addition to the Larkspur
family) is dissolved in boiling water, and produces
a yellow mixture, with a peculiar smell and bitter taste.
It is procured from the dried flowers of a species
o f Larkspur (.Delphinium ochroleucum, M ey), growing
wild in the neighbourhood of the Turkistan mountains,
and also throughout Turan. Like the English
species, it grows about two feet high. Byzgunj
Is also a vegetable dye, used for making substances
black, and is obtained apparently from galls of the
Pistachio tree. Madder (Rubia tmctorum) is sown in
submerged places, and Saffron (Cavthamus tvnctorius)
grows in the fields.
I have said that the district of Kurama is the
granary of Tashkend. Now land under culture in
Central Asia is of two kinds: that which lies near
the mountains, and receives the rain, is called lia lm i;
whilst that which is watered by irrigation, abi. Comparing
an average barley harvest on rain-land with one
on irrigated land, the result, according to the Turkistan
Kalendar, appears to be the same ; but whilst a batman
of wheat sown on 3 acres of rain land yields from 17 to
20 cwt., it gives on irrigated land in the same locality
from 17 to 23 cwt.
Turkistan wheat (budai) is of two kinds : red and
white, or winter and spring. Maize is cultivated,
but in small quantities. Oats will not grow, it is
said, in Central Asia. They, and barley’ also,
to a considerable extent, are replaced by jugara
'(.Holcus sp.), a kind of Sugary Sorghum or Indian
millet, the grain of which is used for gruel, and the
old stems for fuel, whilst the young stems and leaves,
which are not very sweet, make good fodder for cattle.’
One species of oat grass, being considered less heating
than barley, is cultivated principally for horse fodder,