MANUAL OF THE NILAGIRI DISTRICT. 



CHAPTER VI. 



FLORA. 



(By Lientenaut- Colonel R. H. Beddome, M.S.C, Conservator of Forests, 

 Madras Presidency.) 



General remarks. — Botanical divisions of the Hills. — Deciduous forests on slopes — 

 characteristic trees — valuable timbers. — Moist evergreen forests on slopes — 

 characteristic trees — timbers. — Woods of the plateau — characteristic trees — 

 timbers — ferns and mosses. — Grass-land of the plateau — characteristic trees and 

 plants (beautiful plants) of the Hills. — List of flowering plants — Dicotyledonea 

 — Monocotyledones — Graminefe. — List of Ferns and Mosses — Cryptogams — 

 Jungermanniace^ — Biyace^. — Lichenales. — Fungales. — Books of reference. — 

 Introduced plants. 



CHAP. VI. The Nilagiri Mountains, rising to upwards of 8,000 feet, and having 

 J, a rainfall of less than 40 inches on some of the driest parts of the 



eastern side, and 300 inches on the moistest parts of the western 



General slopes, possess, as might be expected, a very varied and interest- 



ing flora, exceedingly numerous in genera and species. With the 

 exception of the dense evergreen moist forests on the western 

 slopes, the whole area has been well explored by botanists, and it 

 is probable that there are no plants now botanically unknown on 

 the plateau and the deciduous forests of the slopes ; but this 

 cannot be said of the heavy moist forests of the western slopes. 

 They are of immense extent, very difficult to get at, and very 

 feverish at the lower elevations ; and as there are no habitations, 

 inhabitants, or supplies of any sort, the visits of botanists, who 

 have often been attracted to them, have been generally of a flying 

 nature. The trees in these tracts attain an immense size, 200 or 

 250 feet in height, and it is of course no easy matter to obtain 

 their flowers ; and there can be no doubt that there are still a 

 good many undescribed species awaiting the botanist. Some 

 flower in the cold season, some in the hot season, and some in the 

 rains, some few are in flower all the year round ; but it is believed 

 that the majority flower between February and the middle of May, 

 which is the most unhealthy time of the year. The shrubs, creepers 

 and herbaceous plants in these tracts are pretty well known, but 

 a careful search at any season of the year would undoubtedly be 

 rewarded by some novelties. 

 Hills divided Botanically we may divide these hills into four tracts, each 

 tracts!^ having its own flora, very few species of which encroach upon the 

 other tracts. 



