Yl PBEFACE. 



admitiistrativc control of tlie G-overument of Bombay, is, for botanical 

 purposes, included within the limits of the Presidency), extends from 

 13° 53' to 28° 47' N. lat. and from 6G= 43' to 76° 30' E. long., and 

 contains about 190,000 square miles, an area more than 1^ times that 

 of Great Britain and Ireland. 



To the uorth of the Tapti river, which passes the town of Surat, 

 stretches the flat alluvial and fertile plain of Gujarat, much of it 

 without a hill to break the monotony of the landscape for miles. Sind, 

 still further to the north-west, separated from Baluchistan by the 

 Kirthar mountains which sometimes rise to a height of 7000 feet, is 

 much of it a plain of desert sand with occasional ridges of low sand- 

 hills. 



South of the Tapti river the country gradually becomes interspersed 

 with hills, and further south the Western Ghats (Sahyadris) run parallel 

 to the sea-coast for about 500 miles, with a general elevation of nearly 

 2000 feet, though occasionally hills rise to a height of 4000 feet or more 

 above the sea-level. 



The low-lying plain between the foot of the Western Ghats and the 

 sea, interspersed ^^•ith hills and with a heavy rainfall and a humid and 

 enervating climate, is known as the Konkan, while the Deccan is the 

 extensive elevated plateau behind the Ghtits, interspersed with numerous 

 hills which are either isolated or in short ranges, with a generally light 

 rainfall and a dry climate. 



The rock of which the Glnits are composed is trap, which, from 

 its peculiarity of breaking away along vertical planes, gives rise to 

 precipitous scarps and hills of strange fantastic form, whose sunnnits 

 are sometimes inaccessible. From the top of Mahableshwar, the chief 

 sanatorium of Bombay, a hill of considerable extent standing at an 

 elevation of 4500 feet above the sea, magnificent views of some of the 

 hill-ranges may be obtained. From a well-known locality on that hill 

 named Elphinstone Point, one can look down into the valley below, 

 a sheer drop of about 3000 feet, while extending for miles rise tier on 

 tier of precipitous hills on many of which the foot of a European 

 has never stepped. The trap-hills are voiy often bare of vegetation 

 on their summits, except where, as at Mahableshwar and Matheran 

 (another sanatorium rising to about 2500 feet above the soa), a capping 

 of laterite covers the trap, in which case the vegetation is varied and 

 abundaul. 



