Botanical Gardens in Petersburg, and the son, Dr. Albert
Regel, a district surgeon in Turkistan. In 1879, Dr. Albert
Regel made a famous journey beyond the Russian border to
Turfan. He has explored botanically the regions east of
Kuldja, also Semirechia, Sungaria, the entire Thian Shan, and
all the Ala-Tau, the districts about Tashkend and Samarkand,
Eastern Bokhara as far as Darvvaz, Shignan, etc., and west
as far as Merv. Whilst the younger Regel has thus widely
gathered, the elder Regel has given descriptions of Turkistan
collections. He published, in 1875, “ New Plants Growing
in the Turkistan Region,” and later have appeared several
monographs (Rosaceae, Berberideae, etc!) from his pen in the
Gartenflora, the Transactions o f the Botanical Gardens o f St.
Petersburg, and the “ Description of new and rare Turkistan
plants collected by Madame Fedchenko, as well as by
Korolkoff, Kuschakewicz (who visited the Pamir), A. Regel,
and Krause” .; but a complete list of the plants of Central
Asia has yet to be compiled.*
For the present it will be seen that our available information
concerning the Turkistan flora is more fragmentary
than that relating to its fauna ; and accordingly, when I
went to Kew to ask for a list of plants that would give some
idea of the flora of Russian Central Asia, I was told that
no such list existed, and that, were I a botanist, it would take
me two years to make one. I found, however, at the Linnean
Society’s library, which was most kindly placed at my service,
the list of Semenoff’s plants as described by Regel and
Herder. I was told that the list was so far representative
that it might probably be used for a foundation by anyone
desiring to make a fuller list, and I therefore give it below.
ENUMERATION OF PLANTS COLLECTED BY P. SEMENOFF,
NORTH AND SOUTH OF THE ILI, IN 1857.
B y E . R e g e l a n d F . v o n H e r d e r .
S e m e n o f f ’ s journeys touched three extensive districts:—(/I) The
Northern, or Sungarian Ala-Tau ; (fl) The Southern, or Trans-Ili Ala-
Tau ; and (C) The Thian Shan, about Issik-Kul.
* M a d a m e F e d c h e n k o i n f o r m s m e t h a t s h e h a s c o m m e n c e d t o m a k e a l i s t o f h e r
T u r k i s t a n p l a n t s , w h i c h , t h o u g h n o t m o r e t h a n h a l f d o n e , , n u m b e r s 9 4 0 s p e c i e s .
(/I) The Northern Ala-Tau at its western extremity sinks into
the broad low country of the Steppe, which extends at an altitude of
between 1,500 to 500 Paris feet to the Balkhash basin. The highland
proper extends easterly to the low country between the Ala-Kul and
Ili, and has a central crest with an average height of 6,000', with
peaks exceeding 12,000'.* It embraces the Arassan chain, the Djonke
plateau, the Kopal, Djangys Agach, Altyn-Immel, Alaman, and the
Kalii chains. Only three, however, of the numerous rivers and streams
of this district reach the Balkhash Lake, the others losing themselves
in the extensive sandy downs and reed marshes of the Steppe.
(fi) The Southern Ala-Tau, between the Ili depression and the
Issik-Kul plateau, rises at a distance of about 40 miles south of the
Ili, as a colossal range, the central portion of which reaches high
above the snow line. Its crest has an average height of 8,000', and its
peaks of nearly 15,000'. This mountain chain, of about 130 miles in
length, consists of two about equally lofty, parallel, crystalline-formed
crests^ which in the middle are joined by a bold granitic cross-yoke.
The • interval between the crests is filled with layers of sedimentary
stone-trending from east to west. The upper part of these strata is
forrfied of mountain limestone, the lower of silicious and clay shales,
probably belonging to the transition period of the mountain range.
The most important section of this chain is the Talgarnyn-Tal-Choku,
which attains a height of 14,000'. To the west of this mountain are
situated the Keskelen and Almaty passes, to the east the Chinbulak
and Maibulak passes, all of them at a height of from 7,000' to 10,000'.
The most important rivers of this district, and southern tributaries of
the Ili are the Chilik with its confluent the Jenishke, then the Talgar
rising in the Talgarnyn-Tal-Choku, with the two Almaty rivers.
(C) The portion o f the Thian Shan visited by Semenoff is separated
from the southern Ala-Tau by. a plateau about 50 miles broad and 150
long, in which there is spread out the basin of the Issik-Kul. The
climate of the surrounding, plateaus is considerably rougher than that
of the low country of the Ili, which is not to be wondered at, since the
Thian Shan attains an average height on its crest of 1 j,ooo, and on its
peaks of nearly 20,000 Paris feet. Fine mountain streams, more than
40 in number, rising in the southern Ala-Tau an(I m the Thian Shan,
run straight across these valleys, and transform the usually sterile
Steppe soil into fertile arable land. Amongst the streams may be
mentioned the Kokdjar, the Karkara, the Tub, the Turgen-Aksu, the
Kachka-su, the Zauku, the Sary-Djas, and a few sources of the Naryn.
All the mountain spurs on both banks of the lake consist of crystalline
rocks, namely, granite and syenite, which are themselves generally
overlaid with a sedimentary conglomerate. The main crest of the
Thian Shan again is not uniform throughout its whole length, but
appears between the Sary-Djas gorge and the easterly sources of the
Naryn to fork out, and run further to the west in two parallel crests,
separated by the important longitudinal valley of the Naryn. Amongst
the most important of the passes of this range of mountains which
Semenoff visited, is the Zauku pass, the absolute height of which
reaches 10,430', and the Kokdjar pass attaining a height of 10,800 feet.
In all three districts (A, B, C,) maybe clearly distinguished five (and if
the snow zone is included, six) natural z o n e s (1) The Steppe zone,
south of the Balkhash Lake, of 500' to 1,500', occasionally 2,000 feet,
* P a r i s f e e t ( 1 A E n g l i s h ) , a n d s o t h r o u g h o u t t h i s a p p e n d i x o n F l o r a .