ed
Umbellifera, a Rheoides papillis verrucosum, this is a true Rheum, and
when cultivated becomes the _Ruwash_ of the Affghanistans; it is very
common on the Candahar face of the pass, particularly about Chokey, where
it is in flower.

_13th_.--Proceeded to Chokey, not quite four miles. The top of the pass
may be reached by three or four passes. I went by one to the right,
which is easy enough, and the descent from which is much better adapted
for camels than the made road, which is very steep, with two sharp turns,
but soft. The descent thence is gradual, down one of the ordinary
ravines, well clothed with the usual shrubs and Xanthoxylon: our camels
were a good deal fagged, but more from the halt at the pass, where some
cathartic plant abounds and weakens them very much, than fatigue. The
view from the top of the pass is very extensive: the plains are seen to
have nearly the same level, and are divided here and there very
frequently to north-east and north, by the ordinary mountains.

_14th_.--Halt; water here is not abundant, and is obtained from driblets
and pools; around these, the surface is covered with a rich sward, which
affords fine fodder for a small number of horses. In the swampy spots,
_Beccabunga_, Anagallis, Mentha, Carex, Glaux, apparently identical (so
far as a memory of 7 years may be trusted,) with the English plant, the
small variety of Leontodon, Medicaginoides, Phleum, and the very small
Amaranthoid, Polygonea, occur.

The hills around Chokey, and below it are rounded, those towards the pass
being more steep. They are covered with Centaurea fruticosa, and C.
spinosa, a favourite food of camels when it has young shoots, Santonica,
Statice, all of which grow precisely as before, Boragineae, Compositae,
Labiatae, and Papilionaceae, are the predominant forms, and mostly of the
same type: I observe a tendency among Boragineae to have cup-shaped nuts.
Generally speaking, the plants are the same as those before found. Rheas,
Papaver, Glaucium purpureum, especially the two last are common, Labiata
salvoides, Iris persica, and crocifolia (rare), Trichonema, Gentiana,
Alyssoides.

The novelties were Rheum, Silena fruticosa, Linaria, Ruta, Astragalina, 2
small Silenaceae, Iris, Glaucium aureo-croceum, a beautiful Boragineae
with cup-shaped nut, Lotoides, an Hippophaoid looking shrub, Scrophularia
sp. singulous, Malthioloids spiralis, Allium, Glaux, Nitella, etc. (See
Catalogue 482 to 516.) Grami