80 



NOTES ON THE DISTRIBUTION OF LIVER- 



WORTS IN THE WESTERN HIMALAYAS, 



LADAK AND KASHMIR.* 



By Shiv Bam Kashyap, 



Professor of Botany, Government College, Lahore. 



In January last the writer published a short paper on the dis- 

 tribution of Liverworts in the Western Himalayas. (Journal of 

 Indian Botany, January, 1920). It was pointed out there that the 

 number of Liverworts decreases as we pass from the east to the 

 west horizontally, and the same law holds good in passing vertically 

 upwards after a certain altitude, not only in the Outer Himalayan 

 Kange but also in the Middle and the Inner Eanges. It was also 

 mentioned that beyond the Inner Himalayas there were no Liverworts 

 in the region visited by the writer. The valley of Kashmir was not 

 dealt with in this connection in that paper owing to the meagreness 

 of collections at the writer's disposal. 



Since then the writer has had the opportunity of travelling 

 through a large part of the country beyond the Himalayas and of 

 making more satisfactory observations on the distribution of Liver- 

 worts in Kashmir than he had been able to do before this. The route 

 followed was after crossing the Himalayas was as follows : — From the 

 Baralacha pass through Kupshu and across the Lachalung and Tagh- 

 lang la passes to Leh, and from there, after travelling along the Indus 

 for some distance, across the Fotu la, the Namyika la and lastly the 

 Zoji la into the Kashmir valley, and ultimately after crossing the 

 Banihal pass into the Punjab plain again. 



It is proposed to give some more, facts about the distribution of 

 Liverworts observed during this journey. 



The Outer and the Middle Himalayas. 



In order to reach the Main Himalayan chain it was neces- 

 sary to pass through a good deal of country already traversed by 

 the writer on former occasions but the opportunity was taken of 

 supplementing the observations made before. The exact path was 

 from Dalhousie to Chamba, then up the Kavi for some distance in 

 order to cross the Kugti pass (17,000 ft.) into Lahoul, and then up the 

 Chenab to the Baralacha pass. The observations made before in this 



• Read before the Indian Science Congress at Calcutta, February, 1921. 



