21 



during the dry season. The ferns that grow 

 here are, for the most part, green only in the 

 monsoons, drying up to the level of their 

 rhizomes after the heavy rains are over. In 

 this dormant state they await the next wet 

 season when they again send out fresh foliage. 

 Others again roll up their fronds after the rains 

 and so resist the dry season. 



But from Mahableshwar southwards the 

 rainfall is heaviest and the moist ever-green 

 forests predominate. Here the shade, shelter, 

 and abundance of moisture together with an 

 equable temperature and suitable soil have given 

 rise to a luxuriant fern vegetation. Here it is 

 that one sees along the mossy banks of the 

 streams the gigantic tree ferns. Here in the mois- 

 ture-laden atmosphere are to be found the tiny 

 filmy ferns. In whichever direction the eye 

 gazes it meets with ferns ferns in great profu- 

 sion, ferns in great variety, ferns in the rich 

 humus, ferns on the damp rocks, ferns on the 

 trunks of trees in short, ferns at every point of 

 vantage. 



On the plateau of the Deccan, which receives 

 less rain than the Konkan and the Ghats and 

 which has a varied vegetation consisting of arid 

 wastes, grassy expanses, areas of deciduous 



