434 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, 1891. 



and we have instead of continuous forest a grass-covered plateau 

 with scattered patches of forest at about the same elevation, to this 

 the name of Pirmerd has been given on account of the presence there, 

 at some former period, of a "jm"" or hermit. This plateau extends 

 some forty miles to the Cardamom hills, when forest again takes the 

 place of grass, and the range gradually rises till it forms the "high 

 range," which has an average elevation of about 6,500 feet, while the 

 highest peak (Aneimudi) reaches 8,870 feet. This peak is the centre 

 from which spring the Aneimullay on the north and the Palni hills 

 on the east. One characteristic of the whole range is the presence of 

 a reed called irul or etah, botanically Beesha travancorica, which clothes 

 the sides of the hills in many places to the exclusion of all other 

 growth whatever. 



The annual rainfall varies in different parts, but is abundant 

 everywhere, except in the extreme south. In Trevandrum in the low 

 country, about 50 miles from Cape Comorin, it averages 65 inches, 

 distributed as follows : — 33 inches in the south-west monsoon, 23 in the 

 north-east, and 9 in the dry months. Forty miles south the rainfall 

 is only 25 inches in all ; while 40 miles north at Quilon it is 62, 29 

 and 8, and some 40 miles further north still at Alleppy it is 70, 37 

 and 13 in the same periods. 



It is this abundant rain-supply that keeps down the temperature, 

 for though Trevandrum is less than 10 degrees from the equator, the 

 temperature averages only 85°, and rarely rises above 90° in the hot 

 weather. 



In the Ashambu hills the rainfall is from 80 to 100 inches, at 

 Ponmudi it is 180, at Pirmerd it is 207, and on the high range 

 about 104. 



The average temperature on the hills at an elevation of 2,100 feet 

 is about 75° F. 



Travancore then may be characterized as a country having a hot 

 moist climate, an abundant vegetation, and an even temperature. I 

 first began collecting butterflies in 1878, and for about two years and 

 a half collected almost entirely in the Ashambu range and about 

 Ponmudi. Since then I have collected off and on, in or about 

 Trevandrum, and have had no opportunity of collecting for more 

 than a week or two in the year on the hills. I have latterly 



