| Kitamura collected approximately 4,000 sheets of specimens representing
about 1,000 wild plant species in Afghanistan, chiefly in the Hindukush
regions, including Nuristan. The flora of Nuristan, where the climate is
humid, is closely related to that of the Himalayas. There were found many
wild growing fruit trees such as the apple, apricot, jujube, pomegranate
and walnut. Along the Bamian river, fig trees, pomegranates and platans
were observed. Whether these plants are wild or naturalized is one of the
most interesting problems for future investigation. Iwamura and Okasaki visited parts of the Tribal Territory in Waziristan for a preliminary survey of Buddhist remains. Their survey, though it was, rather brief, will contribute to identifying some of the Buddhist countries and towns described in the narratives of the ancient Chinese Buddhist pilgrims, Fa-chien and Hsuantsang. With Yamasaki and Umesao, they proceeded to Afghanistan, visiting villages in remote mountains of the Hindukush where they succeeded in locating the Mongols and investigating an old type of the Mongolian language surviving among these descendants of the Chingiscanid Mongols. Yamasaki and Umesao remained in Afghanistan for further detailed studies of these people, while lwamura and Okasaki crossed the Afghan border to lran, where they travelled as far as Tabriz. Imanishi observed the behavior of the Hunza, Nagir and Baltit porters. These porters were subjected to the Rorschach test. According to the test their basic parsonality proved to belong to the colour type, predominantly CF. Matsushita and Huzita made a survery of the western Karakoram mountains. It was found that the area was composed of a basement complex and a Quarternary deposit, the former consisting of metamoriphic sedimentaries and a granite gneiss injected with pegmatite. The Quarternary deposit is fluvioglacial or glacial and fluviatile, forming terraces and fans along some of the larger valleys. These observations will contribute to the study of the Himalayan orogenism and the Quarternary climatic change. In Hunza, which was known as "Healthy Hunza", Harada found that many were suffering from asthma, rheumatism, goiter, tuberculosis and stone diseases, while some from cancer and heart diseases. Nakao observed the ecological aspects of the vegetation in high Karakoram. He found that in the arid land there is sparcely covered by xerophytic bushes, while some island-like green patches were mainly occupied by Sino-Himalayan plants. |
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