672 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol.XII. 



the trees, probably not more than 10 species have been introduced, and 

 about 115 species are probably indigenous. These constitute but a small 

 proportion of the indigenous trees found throughout India, the number 

 of which exceeds 2,000 species, but they give some idea of diversity of 

 forest vegetation in the limited area under consideration, if we bear in 

 mind that the number of species of indigenous trees in Great Britain 

 is only forty. (Lt.-Col. Bailey on " Forestry in India." The Scottish 

 Geographical Magazine for 1897, p. 572.) 



The trees which have been distinctly introduced are the Peach, 

 which is cultivated at the hill station of Panchgani, the Stringy Bark 

 {Eucalyptus oUiqua)^ which does not take kindly to Mahableshwar, 

 the rainfall there being evidently too heavy for it, but does better at 

 Panchgani, though not nearly so well as on the Nilgiri Hills ; the 

 Cinchona succirubra, which again has not been a success, as on the 

 Nilgiri hills and elsewhere ; the Cassowary tree or Beefwood {Casaanna 

 eqitisetifolia) which has been extensively planted at Panchgani, but 

 much prefers the lower lands nearer the sea and especially the sandy 

 beaches of the Konkan coast ; the Oak (Querciis rohur) of which, how- 

 ever there are very few well grown trees ; and the Mulberry (Morus 

 alba) which was probably brought from China. 



Among the more important or more conspicuous trees which may be 

 regarded as indigenous are tvi'o species of (rar^^mza— the wild Mango- 

 steen {Garcinia imhca) and the Gamboge tree (Garcinia ovalifolia) ; the 

 {Sterculia urens), from the wood of which native guitars are made ; the 

 Goldar (Sterculia guttata), conspicuous by its large peach-shaped fruit, 

 covered with scarlet down ; the Silk-cotton tree (Bombax malabarica) 

 which attains a great size and is a tree of strange beauty, when in full 

 bloom, with its large showy, rosy-red flowers ; the K^su (Elcecarpus 

 ohlongus), with leaves turning red in autumn and clusters of flowers with 

 white fringed petals, and reddish l)rown sepals ; the Frankincense tree 

 (BoswelUa sermta), which is plentiful on the Ghat roads between Poena 

 and Mahableshwar ; and another Balsamiferous tree, the Canarium 

 strictum yielding a gum, burnt as incense by the hill people, at their re- 

 ligious services, and much sought after on account of the rarity of the 

 tree, of which I have found only one specimen at Matheran, — to 

 my lasting w^ondor at its presence there, in a thick wood, far from 

 its congeners and hemmed in by countless aliens ; the Garuga 



