Page:Mongolia, the Tangut country, and the solitudes of northern Tibet vol 1 (1876).djvu/267

 However, the sands of Kuzupchi, which the Mongols say are from 10 to 50 miles wide, are not in all parts the land of death and desolation. Nearer the extreme edge, small oases may be seen covered with a variety of plants, amongst which we noticed the pretty shrub Hedysarum sp., completely covered in the month of August with pink blossoms; a few small trees also grow here — Calligonum sp., Tragopyrum sp., and the remarkable cross-shaped Pugionium cornutum. Only two specimens of this rare plant have as yet been brought to Europe, viz., in the last century by the naturalist Gmelin; they are preserved in the museums of London and Stuttgardt. To my great regret I was unaware of the rarity of the Pugionium, and therefore only gathered a few specimens which I placed in my herbarium with other kinds. This plant is often met with in the sands of Kuzupchi, where it grows like a shrub to the height of seven feet, with a stem 1 to 1½ inch thick near the root.

Two hundred miles to the west of the meridian of Bautu, the sands of Kuzupchi cross to the left bank of the Hoang-ho, whilst the valley of the river (on its right bank) again changes its character and becomes quite sterile. Coarse sand is mixed with the clayey saline soil, and the valley itself, especially nearer the bank of the River, is seamed with the beds of dry watercourses which drain off the rainwater. Vegetation becomes very scanty, so much so that the soil is for the most part bare and studded with little mounds (3 to 6 feet high), on