102 REPORT — rl851. 



fully felt, particularly at night. In tiie whole of this district rain falls in greater 

 quantities than to the northward ; in the jungle districts to the east, the 

 supply of rain is said never to fail in the driest of seasons, and it often falls 

 there when none is apparent in the more open districts. 



" It is in such tracts as these that rivers rise, for from the number, height, 

 and comparative proximity of the hills to the southward of the Taptee, we 

 might, a priori, suppose that the supply of water in that district would be 

 abundant : and such is actually the case, as we find in a breadth of fifty miles 

 eight rivers, all containing water throughout the year. Reasoning from these 

 facts, we may also predicate the sort of country in which tiiese rivers have 

 their origin, viz. underlying hilly tracts abounding in rich soil, highly retentive 

 of moisture, and rendered still more so by luxuriant jungle." — ^Surgeon Gibson 

 in Tr. Bomb. Med. and Phys. Soc. Journ., pp. 37, 4-1. 



Report from Dr. Gibson, dated 9th March 1846 — "In the collectorate 

 comprising the South Conkan, under Bombay, since this tract has been 

 denuded of forest, as it now has been to a great extent fi'om the pressure of 

 population, all the inhabitants concur in asserting that the springs have left 

 the uplands, that the climate has become greatly drier, the seasons more un- 

 certain, and the land less fertile. I believe that this can be confirmed by 

 the testimony of the late collector Mr. Elphinstone, but indeed it is most 

 apparent to a person travelling along that line of country, as I have just now 

 been doing, mainly with the intention of remarking changes which have 

 taken place in the interval of fifteen years, which period of time has elapsed 

 since I visited that line of country before; I have also understood that 

 effects of a similar kind have been experienced at the Neilgherry Hills. A 

 change of climate, similar to that now under contemplation, is by no means 

 limited in extent to the mere district in which the clearing has taken place, 

 but its influence extends far inland. Take for example all the southern and 

 western portion of the Dharwar Zillah. This fertile country abounds in 

 moisture, insomuch that it has been (though rather inaptly, I think) com- 

 pared to the valley of the Mississippi ; at all events American upland cotton 

 grows there, which it will hardly do in other parts of the Bombay presidency. 

 I think it is not too much to say, that much of this moisture depends on the 

 wooded country forming its western border, and that with the complete re- 

 moval of this, the climate would greatly change. My own opinion is, that 

 in the Bombay presidency some cause of this kind has had a great share in 

 producing that irregularity of the rainy season which has of late years been 

 so much complained of, as to diminished fertility of the soil from the removal 

 of belts of wooded country ; the rationale of this is most evident." 



On the lieproduction and supposed Existence of Sexual Organs in the 

 Higher Cryptogamaus Plants. By Arthur Henfrey, F.L.B. 



Having been prevented by the pressure of other engagements from comply- 

 ing with the request which the Association did me the liono^ir to make last 

 yeai-, that I should assist Prof. Lindley and Dr. Lankester in preparing a 

 Export on Vegetable Physiology, I venture to present a fragmentary contri- 

 bution on ti-.e subject, relating to a branch of the science to which my atten- 

 tion has been recently strongly attracted, in the pursuit of my own investiga- 

 tions. I was the more induced to devote the short time at my disposal to 



