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THE TREES AND SHRUBS OF THE LONAVLA AND 



KARLA GROVES. 

 By 



G. A. Gahmie, F.L.S., Professor of Botany and Agriculture, 

 College of Science, Poona. 



The groves botanically examined were five in number : the first, 

 also the largest and most popularly known, in Lonavla at the head of 

 the Bhor Ghat, consisting of a broad belt of large trees and with many 

 enormous climbers ; the second, a small wood to the north, near the 

 Tower of Silence with fine specimens of Anodendron and Gnetum ; the 

 third, a small wood to the south of no special interest ; the fourth, a 

 larger wood on a small, conical hill, near the railway line about half 

 way between Lonavla to Karla, in which the trees ai*e literally festooned 

 with large climbers ; and the fifth, the wood at Karla village lying 

 between the railway station and the cave temple, in many respects the 

 most interesting of all. The majority of the trees and shrubs are either 

 in flower or fruit during the hot weather, when the smaller plants are 

 absent, so that the botany of the scattered areas under consideration, 

 being of limited scope and yet well diversified, would offer a favourable 

 opportunity to any one wishing to lay the foundations of a practical 

 knowledge of Systematic Botany. It must be understood that the 

 country immediately surrounding these woods is very bare in the dry 

 season. The woods at Lonavla itself are well separated and the fourth 

 and fifth lie far apart. Southwards the ridge of the Sakar Pathar ran we 

 is seen covered with low jungle. 



The woods are supposed to be sacred groves in which are preserved 

 the remnants of forests which once covered the Deccan. There can be 

 but slight grounds for this supposition, because the greater proportion of 

 the trees and shrubs enumerated here belong strictly to the Konkan 

 Flora and they exist under Konkan conditions now, as even the Karla 

 wood, which lies farthest from the Ghat, is well within the heavy rain- 

 fall zone where the extreme temperatures o f the Deccan do not prevail. 

 The groves at Lonavla are scattered over a wide extent of laterite, and 

 there is no reason why the whole station should not be covered with 

 equally good trees, but the fourth and fifth woods are on isolated 

 mounds of sandy laterite, rising out of a darker soil, and it is interesting 

 to observe how their growth diminishes and at length ceases as their 

 margins merge into this darker soil. Their existence is probably as 

 much a matter of soil as of climate. No forest patches of the same 



