28 THE JOURNAL OF INDIAN BOTANY. 



some places it was reported that Babul trees {Acacia arabica Willd.) 

 had died. As a matter of fact many of the Banian trees (Ficus benga- 

 lensis L) especially those which happened to be growing on road sides 

 near dry hills showed an unusual leaf-fall and remained practically 

 bare of leaves for some time. Even the very resistant prickly pear 

 [Opuntia nigricans Haw.) showed signs of suffering, and in April 1919 

 had taken on a yellow colour and was drooping over extensive areas. 

 It seemed a matter of some interest under these very exceptional 

 conditions to ascertain what plants remained actually alive and grow- 

 ing, and to find the amount of available moisture round the roots of 

 such plants. The enquiry did not concern itself with trees, but only 

 with herbaceous and sub-woody plants, and particular attention was 

 devoted to (l) finding out to what degree the moisture conditions can 

 be reduced, without preventing the wild indigenous weeds, mostly of 

 arable land, from living and growing (2) *noting the general behaviour 

 of the plants or the particular adaptation of the different plant- 

 organs which seemed to enable the plants to tide over the drought, 

 and (3) making special notes of any plants of agricultural or other 

 economic value (especially of fodder value) that lived and grew 

 through the drought, so that they might be tried as additions to the 

 drought resisting plants actually grown in the country. This last 

 aspect of the study was considered to be of very great importance, for 

 shortness of fodder is now the great characteristic of famines in the 

 Deccan. 



A chain of stations was made across the Deccan, and working 

 from these all the plants, whether likely to be of use or no, which 

 were living and growing at the hottest and driest part of 1919 in the 

 month of May were secured, and in many cases samples of the soil 

 in which they were growing were collected for a moisture determina- 

 tion. The samples of soil were taken, chiefly from the lower one 

 third of the root region. 



Moisture determination in the soil thus collected gave some 

 difficulty. It was obvious that a mere determination of the loss on 

 heating in a steam bath would not give the actual amount of "free" 

 water in the soil, — and it is the "free" water that it was important to 



• In doing this a comparison of the herbarium material of the difierent 

 species collected from time to time in different situations as regards rainfall 

 and soil, conditions was made, with the plants now collected to see what 

 deviations from the normal type could be detected in each case. And although 

 we cannot rely solely upon such a comparison in determining the behaviour 

 of a plant in a particular situation under different conditions of soil moisture 

 still in the absence of any direct comparison, that was the only course left 

 open. 



