Composita Senecionoides occurs about Soorkhab, Reaumuria occurs half-way between it and Gundamuck.  Capparis continues to Soorkhab.  Statices common, also Campanula; and about Jugdulluck a striking Boragineous plant, Boraginiae sp., and on the sandy pass above Barkhab, a Salvia is found in profusion, one of the commonest grasses is Poa cynosuroides?

The stem of Hippuris is worth examination, inasmuch as it consists of a central easily separable axis, and a vertical system of great thickness, highly cellular, so that judging a priori, as these cells (which are compound) occupy the whole space between the ligneous system and the cutis, no longitudinal vessels can exist in that part which represents the bark.

15th.—­Cabul.  Glycyrrhiza thermopsoides frequently presents on the non-flowering stems, a pod-like transformation of the uppermost leaves.

In Centaurea cyanea, the disposition of the limb of the ray is such that the incomplete part or the fissure is outside.  This is exactly opposite to the disposition of the same part in true Ligulatae.

Judging from Centaurea, the smaller lip of the bilabiate species of Compositae ought to be situated outside.

Erythraeoides, Glauca floribus albidis occurs on the Chummums.

16th.—­Regaled with a library:  “Calumny and detraction,” says Boerhaave, “are sparks, which if you do not blow them, will go out of themselves.”—­Murphy’s Johnston, Vol.  IX. p.34.

In Johnston’s Life of Drake, p.99 to 100, are some admirable remarks on those minds, that disapprove of every strikingly novel scheme, and from which a good motto might be chosen, should any national system be proposed in Botany.

What were Sir Thomas Browne’s five sorts of vegetables, and what were his remarks on the form of plants and laws of vegetation?—­See Johnston’s Works, Vol.  IX. p.296.

CHAPTER XXI.

From Cabul to Kohi-Baba.

July 17th.—­Proceeded from Cabul to Shah Bagh; cloudy weather, occasionally a very slight shower during the last few days, depending probably on the Punjab rains.  To-day, observed a small green caterpillar, climbing up a fine thread, like a spider’s web, which hung from the fly of the tent; its motions were precisely those of climbing, the thread over which it had passed was accumulated between its third pairs of legs; it did not use its mouth.

I did not ascertain whether the thread was its own production or not; if it was, it must have come out of its tail.

24th.—­The fish in the Cabul river here are, a Loach, an Oreinus, and a Barbel; none of these grow to any size, as there is but little water left in the river in consequence of the drain for extensive cultivation on both the east and west sides of the city.

Small specimens of these fish, especially the Loach and Oreinus, are found in the canals or larger watercuts, in which the current is slow and regular.  It is curious that in the canal near the Shah Bagh, which has been lately turned off above the Cantonment, all the specimens of the Loach left in the pools of water were dead, while the Oreinus did not appear to have suffered.