INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. 129 



This range of the Ghats is sufficiently lofty and abrupt to 

 produce a heavy rain-fall during the south-west monsoon ; 

 between May and September this is in some parts immense, 

 and only rivalled by that of Malabar and the Khasia hills in 

 East Bengal. At Mahabaleshwar, it amounts to 248 inches 

 annually. In the Southern Concan, especially in the Sawant 

 Wari district, the rains are as heavy as in Canara. At Bom- 

 bay, the rains last from June till the end of September, and 

 the fall is only 80 inches, which is considerably less than 

 at any point further south on the coast. At Tannah, how- 

 ever, the average fall is more than 100 inches. During the 

 north-east monsoon, which blows from November till March, 

 the climate is dry compared with that of Malabar, the change 

 commencing rather suddenly where the mountains are lowest 

 and most distant from the coast. At Bombay there are re- 

 gular sea-breezes in the afternoon, so that the atmosphere 

 ©ever becomes extremely arid. 



The change of climate, marked by diminished mean tem- 

 perature, a lower winter temperature, and greater dryness, 

 which accompanies the increased distance from the Equator, 

 lias a decided influence on the vegetation. The whole Con- 

 can is hence more open than Malabar, heavy forests are rarer, 

 many tropical Malayan forms disappear, and the most mois- 

 ture-loving types of vegetation linger only in the damp re- 

 cesses of the mountains. A rich cultivation replaces the fo- 

 rest in the valleys especially, and the dense jungles are con- 

 fined more or less to the lower slopes of the main chain. In 

 the more open parts there is a remarkable mixture of African 

 types ; instead of the luxuriant Acanthacete of Southern In- 

 dia, there occur spiny-leaved species, similar to Abyssinian 

 and Arabian ones. Curious UmbelUferte, allied to no others 

 in India, accompany these, as well as a great variety of forms 

 typical of the north tropical African vegetation. The arid 

 flora of the Dekhan, of Manvar and Sind, however, hardly 



enters the Concan. 



has only lately been 



8 



