349.5 

 .B58 



LIBRARY N£W YORK SCT^NICAL GARDEN 



4602 



o.N THE FLOllA OF DUTCH. 



K. Blatter, s.j. 

 Pakt I. 

 The flora of Outcli has received very little attention on the pari of 

 botanical explorers. There is scarcely any other part in India thai L- 

 so seldom mentioned in floristic works as Ontcli. Much less are we 

 able to find any special publication on its vegetation. When Hooker 

 and Thomson published their "'Flora Indica" in 1855, they gave us 

 in thp "Introductory Essay" a valuable account of the physical and 

 botanical features of the various parts of India, bui regarding Dutch 

 we read onlv the following remarks : " Trie district oi Kach, which 

 is separated from Katiwar by the Gidf of Knoh, a narrow arm of the 

 sea, from Sindh by the mosl eastern branch of the Indus, and from 

 Harwar by the Rami (a very singular saliue an I more or less marshy 

 plain, in which the river Luni loses itself) has a very similar climate 

 to the peninsula of Gujarat, being like thai traversed by a range of 

 bills running from West to East, it may, therefore, (for our purposes) 

 with more propriety be considered a part of Gujarat, than to belong to 

 Sindh, to which physically as well as politically it is more nearly 

 related. The northern districts of both Kach and Ivatiwar, being 

 screened from the rain-bringing windsbythe hills, are extremely arid.'- 1 

 Since the time when this was written, the countries surrounding 

 Dutch have been explored more minutely a- regards their flora, and 

 the physical and meteorological conditions prevailing in them are 

 better known. This will enable us later on to decide the question 

 whether Cutch ought to be considered a part of the botanical 

 province of Gujarai or of Sind. The last 50 years did not add 

 much to our knowledge of the dura of ditch. Here we are 

 speaking of the printed records only, for we are not so fortunate a^ to 

 have access to the extensive herbaria of Europe which very likelv 

 contain specimens also of dutch. Of the former onlv one came under 

 our notice. it is a list of the plants of Cutch, prepared by Colonel 

 ( '. T. Palin as a contribution to Vol. V. of the Bombay Gazetteer in 

 1880. The circumstance 'hat the habitat and flowering time is added 

 to the names of many species make the catalogue a very valuable 



'. Houkur, J, D., ?.nr] Thomson, T.. Flora Indica, Vol. I„ p. 150. 



