VERNACULAR LIST OF TREES, SHRUBS 
AND WOODY CLIMBERS IN THE 
MADRAS PRESIDENCY. 
INTRODUCTION. 
HE revision of the “List of trees, shrubs and woody climbers 
found in the forests of the Madras Presidency” has been beset 
with many difficulties; and I have no doubt but that there will be 
many adverse critics of the result of my endeavour. 
2. The first difficulty that presented itself arose as to what consti- 
tuted such a tree, shrub or woody climber,—firstly in respect of 
indigenous, secondly in regard to exotic-plants. As regards the 
indigenous: firstly, taking Hooker, Roxburgh, and such well-known 
authorities to start with, I found, inter alia, that Datura (Indian indi- 
genous), Stachytarpheta indica, and Hibiscus ficulneus, are classed as 
“annual herbs” ; these are only samples and many other instances 
could be quoted; the first was found in Ganjam as a tree of 25 feet 
high with a stem of 6 to 7 inches diameter, and is commonly met 
with in many parts of the Presidency as a good sized shrub; the 
second forms a bushy shrub in the Northern Circars sometimes 10, 
often 6, feet high with a woody stem and woody branches often 2 to 4 
inches thick, and in Jeypore forms a dense scrub along the road; the 
third, usually found browsed down and spreading along the ground 
on black soils, was found at Gullery in Ganjam over.!2 feet high and 
with a woody stem 2 to 3 inches thick. With divergence such as 
these from the standard authors, one cannot help feeling doubtful as 
to whether the “habit” in innumerable other cases has not been 
wrongly gauged. Then again under the head of climbers amongst 
dicotyledonous plants, there is almost a complete transition from 
scaudent herbs to scandent trees of considerable magnitude, and it is 
exceedingly hard to draw the line, especially, perhaps amongst the 
_Leguminose. Epiphytes and parasites again are another class where 
if is extremely difficult to draw a line, e.g., do Cuscuta and Cassytha 
come under the head “ligneous,” or “ herbaceous”? When it comes 
to the class of monocotyledons and ferns the difficulty is even greater. 
I think, for instance, the Epiphytic Orchids have just as great a claim 
to entry as many of the Viscums and some of the Loranthi. 
3. Secondly, with regard to exotics, where is the line to be drawn? 
a considerable number have naturalized themselves, and in the dry 
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