Page:Provincial geographies of India (Volume 1).djvu/94

74 millets and pulses. The great Thai desert to the south of the Salt Range between the valleys of the Jhelam and the Indus has a similar soil, but the scantiness of the rainfall has confined cultivation within much narrower limits. Between the Sutlej and the Jhelam the uplands between the river valleys are known locally as Bars. The largest of the truly indigenous trees of the Panjab plains are the far ash (Tamarix articulata) and the thorny kikar (Acacia Arabica). The latter yields excellent wood for agricultural implements, and fortunately it grows well in sour soils. Smaller thorny acacias are the nimbar or raunj (Acacia leucophloea) and the khair (Acacia Senegal). The dwarf tamarisk, pilchi or jhao (Tamarix dioica), grows freely in moist sandy soils near rivers. The scrub jungle consists mostly oijand (Prosopis spicigera), a near relation of the Acacias, jdl or van (Salvadora oleoides), and the coral-flowered karil or leafless caper (Capparis aphylla). All these show their desert affinities, the jand by its long root and its thorns, the jdl by its small leathery leaves, and the karil by the fact that it has managed to dispense with leaves altogether. The jand is a useful little tree, and wherever it grows the natural qualities of the soil are good. The sweetish fruit of the jdl, known as pilu, is liked by the people, and in famines they will even eat the berries of the leafless caper. Other characteristic plants of the Panjab plains are under Leguminosae, the khip (Crotalaria burhia), two Farsetias (farid ki buti), and the jawdsa or camel thorn (Alhagi camelorum), practically leafless, but with very long and stout spines; under Capparidaceae several Cleomes, species of Corchorus (Tiliaceae), under Zygophyllaceae three Mediterranean genera, Tribulus, Zygophyllum, and Fagonia, under Solanaceae several Solanums and Withanias, and various salsolaceous Chenopods known as lana.