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THE MANGROVE OF THE BOMBAY PRESIDENCY, 



AND ITS BIOLOGY. 



By E. Blatter, S.J. 



( With plates A and B.) 



[Read before the Bombay Natural History Society on 

 the ?Ast August 1^05.) 



There is scarcely any formation of the tropical vegetation which 

 biologically and physiognomically could be of greater interest 

 than the mangrove. Wherever in the damp parts of the tropics 

 there is a flat and muddy sea-shore, protected against the heavy waves 

 of the tide, we find within the boundaries of high and low water a 

 more or less developed belt of shrubs and trees to which the name 

 mangrove was popularly applied for a long time. It is now generally 

 adopted by biologists to designate that peculiar edaphic formation 

 which in its floral and vecological characters vastly differs from the 

 inland vegetation. Though most of the representatives of the mangrove 

 are widely spread, and, as it were, cosmopolitans, we may, nevertheless, 

 with Schimper,* distinguish a western and eastern mangrove. The 

 former, which occupies the coasts of Western Africa and America, 

 does not exhibit a great variety, being composed of four species only, 

 viz., Rhizophora mangle L., Laguncvlaria racemosa, Avicennia tomen- 

 tosa and Avicennia nitida. The eastern mangTove covering the coasts 

 of East Africa, Asia, Australia, and Micronesia is represented by the 

 following kinds : Ohizophoraceffi : Rhizcphora mucronata Lam., conju- 

 gata L., Ceriops candolleana Am., Roxburghiana Arm, Kandelia 

 rhedii W. et A., Brugniera gymnorhiza Lam., eriopetala W. et A., 

 caryophylloides Bl.j parvifiora W. et A. ; Combretaceae : Lumnitzera 

 racemosa Willd., coccinea W. et A. ; Lythraceae : Sonneratia 

 apetala Ham., acida L., alba Smith ; Meliaceee : Carapa moluccensis 

 Lam., obvata Bl.; Myrsinacese : ^Egiceras ma jus Gaertn. ; Rubiacese : 

 Scyphiphora hydrophyllacea Gaertn. ; Verbenace?e : Avicennia 

 officinalis L. ; Acanthacese : Acanthus ilicifolius L. ; Palmse : Nipa 

 frut'icans Wurmb. 



Of the 21 species here enumerated 14 occur in the Bombay Presidency, 

 vis., Rhizophora mucronata and conjugata, Ceriops candolleana, 

 Kandelia rhedii, Brugniera gymncrhizo caryophylhides, and parvi- 



* Schimper : Pflaozengengraphie auf Physiologischer Grundlage, p. 423. 



