INTRODUCTION, 



THE first account of the Flora of the Pulney Hills was, 

 I believe, published by Robert Wight in the Journal 

 of the Madras Literary and Scientific Society in 1837. 

 It is doubtful, however, whether he collected from the 

 plateau, for the highest levels reached seem to have been 

 Shembaganur and Perumal. At about the same time he 

 published a volume of figures, with short descriptions, of 

 the commoner Nilgiri plants under the name Spicelegiiim 

 neilgherrense, most if not all of which also appeared in 

 his Illustrations of the Flora of South India or his Icones. 

 These are now all very scarce and only available for 

 reference in certain libraries and government offices. 

 Twenty-one years later Colonel Beddome published, 

 again in the Journal of the Madras Literary and Scientific 

 Society, a list of 700 species collected on the Pulneys ; and 

 he also wrote an account of the Flora of the Nilgiris for 

 the Nilgiri District Manual, in which he gives separate 

 lists of the commoner plants composing the shola, and 

 open grass land vegetation of the plateau. Since then 

 the only accounts which have appeared, as far as I 

 know, have been short notes, such as Mrs. Mackay's 

 charmingly written Wild Flowers of Kodaikanal, and in 

 local guides. 



The area dealt with in this book consists of the two 

 plateaus, especially of the parts from Kotagiri to Gotaca- 

 mund and Pykara, and near Kodaikanal ; which range 

 from 6,500 to 8,500 feet above sea level. The lower limit 

 of 6,500 feet has been chosen because at about this level 

 the vegetation changes quite rapidly from the rich 

 tropical and subtropical arboraceous flora of the steep 

 slopes to one of a more temperate and also more her- 

 baceous character. Thus we find here species nearly 



