the fixed inhabitants, as well as to the mineral wealth of the adjoining mountains and the industrial activity of the city population, especially in regard to silk and woollen manufactures (the carpets of Herat being famous throughout the East), the country rapidly recovers from the effects of war, and its normal condition may be said to be that of prosperity and abundance.
In actual territory Herat extends east and west from near the sources of the Heri-rud about 300 miles to the Persian frontier beyond Ghorian, and north and south from the Merv boundary, in about 36 D lat., 200 miles to the northern limit of Seistan. The inhabitants of the city of Herat are for the most part Shiahs, and in regard to language and habits, as well as religion, are Persians rather than Afghans. There are, however, both in the town and in the neighbouring villages a certain number of Afghan colonists, who have been settled there—the greater part by Nadir Shah—during the last 150 years, as well as Hazarehs, Jamshidi s, and Taimenis, with a fair sprinkling of Hindus and some forty families of Jews. The net revenue of the valley and its immediate dependencies in ordinary times is under 100,000 per annum, but the vizier Yar Mahomed Khan is supposed in the plenitude of his power, and when he had for a time brought a great part of Seistan under his sway, to have realized double that amount from the entire province.
To trace in any detail the fortunes of Herat would be to write the modern history of the East, for there has hardly been a dynastic revolution, or a foreign invasion, or a great civil war in Central Asia since the time of the Prophet, in which Herat has not played a conspicuous part and suffered accordingly. Under the Tahirides of Kborassan, the Soffarians of Seistan, and the Samanides of Bokhara, it flourished for some centuries in peace and progressive prosperity ; but during the succeeding rule of the Ghaznevide kings its metropolitan character was for a time obscured by the celebrity of the neighbouring capital of Ghazni, until finally in the reign of Sultan Sanjar of Merv about 1157 the city was entirely destroyed by an irruption of the Ghoz, the predecessors, in race as well as in habitat, of the modern Turcomans. Herat gradually recovered under the enlightened Ghoride kings, who were indeed natives of the province, though they preferred to hold their court amid their ancestral fortresses in the mountains of Ghor, so that at the time of Jenghiz Khan s invasion it equalled or even exceeded in populousness and wealth its sister capitals of Balkh, Merv, and Nishapoor, the united strength of the four cities being estimated at three millions of inhabitants. But this Moghul visitation was most calamitous; forty persons, indeed, are stated to have alone survived the general massacre of 1232, and as a similar catastrophe overtook the city at the hands of Timur in 1398, when the local dynasty of Kurt which had succeeded the Ghorides in eastern Khorassan was put an end to, it is astonishing to find that early in the 15th century Herat was again nourishing and populous, and the favoured seat of the art and literature of the East. It was indeed under the princes of the house of Timur that most of the noble buildings were erected, of which the remains still excite our admiration at Herat, while all the great historical works relative to Asia, such as the Rozct-cs-Scfd, the Habib-cs-scir, ILtfiz Abnl s Tarlkh, the Hatlta-es-Sa adin, &c., date from the same place and the same age. Four times was Herat sacked by Turcomans and Uzbegs during the centuries which intervened between the Timuride princes and the rise of the Afghan power, and it has never in modern times attained to anything like its old importance. Afghan tribes, who had originally dwelt far to the east, were first settled at Herat by Nadir Shah, and from that time they have monopolized the government and formed the dominant element in the population. It will be needless to trace the revolutions and counter-revolutions which have followed each other in quick succes sion at Herat since Ahmed Shah Durani founded the Afghan mon archy about the middle of the last century. Let it suffice to say that Herat has been throughout the seat of an Afghan government, sometimes in subordination to Cabul and sometimes independent. Persia indeed for many years showed a strong disposition to reassert the supremacy over Herat which was exercised by the Suffavean kings, but Great Britain, disapproving of the advance of Persia towards the Indian frontier, steadily resisted the encroachment; and, indeed, after helping the Heratis to beat off the attack of the Persian army in 1838, the British at length compelled the shah in 1857 at the close of his war with them to sign a treaty recognizing the future independence of the place, and pledging Persia against any further interference with the Afghans, In 1863 Herat, which for fifty years previously had been independent of Cabul, was incorporated by Dost Mahomed Khan in the Afghan monarchy, and such is the present condition of the principality, the actual Governor Ay db Khan being the uterine brother and deputy of Yacub Khan, who recently signed with the Government of India the famous treaty of Gandamak.
HÉRAULT, a department in the south of France, formed from parts of the old province of Languedoc, is bounded on the N.E. by Gard, N.W. by Aveyron and Tarn, and S. by Aude and the Gulf of Lyons. It has an area of 2444 square miles, and is situated between 43 10 and 44 N. lat., T 30 and 4 10 E. long. Its greatest length is 84 miles, and its greatest breadth 50. About a third of the department consists of moorland, heath, and common, a fourth of arable land, a sixth of vineyards, and an eighth of wood. The southern prolongation of the Cevennes mountains forms the north boundary of the department. The highest point is about 4250 feet above the sea-level. The ridge forms the watershed between the waters of the Atlantic and the Mediterranean, and from it there flow the Vidourle, Mosson, H&rault, Livron, and Orb. Of these the H6rault, 80 miles long, is the chief, and gives name to the department. The Vidourle forms the boundary between the department and that of Gard. . The high mountains of the north are partly barren, partly wooded. In the extensive plains of the centre the vine and olive flourish, and figs, mulberries, and other fruit-trees are to be met with nearly in all parts. Grain is chiefly produced in the south. The soil of the north is chalky clay, of the centre light gravel, and of the south a strong rich loam. The " garrigues " are considerable pardons of waste land, covered with heath and shrubs. St Loup, Couques, and St Thibe ry, the first of which is 750 feet high, are extinct volcanic cones. The greater part of the soutli coast consists of a series of salt marshes, separated from the sea by a narrow strip of land. The marsh of Thau, the largest, stretches from the mouth of the Herault, and communicates, through the marsh of Frontignan, with that of Mauguio, on the eastern frontier of the department. The Canal du Midi, after stretching about 30 miles into the department, terminates at Agde. From Cette the navigation is kept up through the marshes by the canals of Agde and Radelle to Aigues Mortes. The coast line of the department is 66 miles long. In the valleys and at the foot of the mountains the climate is delightfully mild. Fish abound in the salt marshes. The vegetable productions comprise aromatic and dyeing plants ; the ilex oak prevails in the forests. The mineral wealth of the department is considerable. Mines of lignite, coal, iron, copper, and lead are wrought. It produces magnificent blocks of marble, also alabaster, gypsum, granite, sand stone, potters clay, alum ; and the marshes supply France with salt. At Gabian there is a petroleum well. Wine and oil constitute the chief . agricultural wealth of the department. The red wines of St Georges, St Drdzery, St Christol, and the white wines of Frontignan and Lunel, are held in high estimation. Considerable quantities of wheat, oats, and potatoes are grown. There is a large amount of excellent pasturage, and horses and sheep are extensively reared. Mulberries, pomegranates, figs, raisins and other dried fruits, and olives are prepared for exportation. The chief manufactures are woollen and cotton cloth, silk, per fumery, soap, and chemical substances. The department has Montpellier for its capital, and is divided into the arrondissements of Montpellier, Bcziers, Lodeve, ond St Pons, with 36 cantons and 331 communes. The population was 429,878 in 1872, and 445,053 in 1876.
HERBARIUM, or Hortus Siccus, a collection of plants so dried and preserved as fully to illustrate their several specific characters. Since the same plant, owing to pecu liarities of climate, soil, and situation, degree of exposure to light, and other influences, may vary greatly according to the locality in which it occurs, it is only by gathering together for comparison and study a large series of examples of each species illustrative of the flora of different regions that the laws of vegetable morphology, and many more points of scientific interest, can be satisfactorily determined. Thus, from the herbarium may be acquired a knowledge of those details concerning the minuter structure of individual plants which are of necessity omitted in works of systematic botany, as also of the relative taxonomic importance of the characters to be met with in large groups of forms.
