FLORA OF CUTCll. 175 



ohiinioteri/Aul l>y species that do not. oocur in the countries im- 

 rni'diatoly bordering on the Rann of Cutch, we would be obliged 

 to admit that at one time the island formed part of a big continent, 

 that, afterwards, its immediate surroundings were submerged, and 

 that what is now Sind, Rajputana, Guzerat, and Cutch, was changed 

 entirely by some cause or other. If endemic sjjecies were found 

 amongst the members of the flora, we would bo right in concluding 

 that Pacham was not recently detached from a continent, but that, 

 from the beginning, it was a true oceanic island, and that, after a 

 long interval, the land began to rise and to form round Pacham 

 Isle. Neither of the two conditions is fulfilled with regard to the 

 biggest of the Rann islands. We did not notice u single species 

 on Pacham, which we had not previously seen on the mainland. 

 The fact that the whole aspect of the Pacham flora is quite difi"erent 

 from that of any other part of Cutch examined by us is not due to 

 specific differences in the composition of the vegetation but to 

 differences in the combination and development of its members, in 

 consequence of the special climatic and edaphic conditions prevailing 

 on the island. Everybody, after crossing the grassy plain of the 

 Banni and the monotonous waste of the Rann, will be astonished to 

 find, on a sudden, a comparatively rich vegetation. Fine shady 

 trees greet the traveller in the lowlying beit of the island, and 

 dense thickets of shrubs and climbers cover those parts that are not 

 under cultivation. The prevalence of woody plants is the most 

 striking feature of the flora. The mountain slopes look, from a 

 distance, as if covered with dense forest, but, on closer inspection, 

 the trees are losing a good deal of their size and beauty, and the 

 whole forest now assumes the appearance of a more or less dense 

 thicket of stunted trees and shrubs of a distinctly xerophytio 

 character. The herbaceous vegetation is very scanty ; only in 

 crevices, where some soil has accumulated, nature has succeeded in 

 producing a few poor species belonging cliiefly to the Gramlneoi, 

 Compositce, Labiatce, and Leguminosce. 



It is evident that a flora with so few characteristic peculiarities 

 in its aspect and with none as regards its composition, being merely 

 a repetition of the vegetation of the mainland, cannot give any clue 

 as to the origin of the Rann. We can easily explain how, under 

 conditions similar to those of the present day, the whole flora of 



