706 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. XV1J. 



comparatively during the rainy season, and reaches its maximum not a 

 long time after the heavy rains. 



Before we leave our subject I should like to make a short remark on a 

 certain opinion expressed in many books of travels. Not selaom we find 

 the statement that in the tropics there is no period of rest in the sexual 

 sphere, that the vegetation bears blossoms throughout the year. This 

 is true if understood in the way that there is no season without flowers. 

 This fact can easily be collected from our tables. But the statement is 

 not correct if it implies that the single plants generally develop flowers 

 during the whole year. There are, no doubt, plants which can be seen 

 flowering without interruption, but their number is a limited one, 

 though perhaps, as it seems, not quite so limited as stated by many 

 botanists. When examining the floras of the different regions, 1 found 

 a surprisingly small number of plants which are mentioned as flowering 

 throughout the whole year. Cooke and Woodrow, v.g., give 18 woody 

 and 15 herbaceous plants for the Bombay Presidency, Brandis 14 

 woody plants for North-West and Central India, Duthie 5 woody and 3 

 herbaceous plants for the Upper Gangetic Plain, Kurz 30 woody plants 

 for Burma, Collet 7 for Simla, Trimen 36 woody and 102 herbaceous 

 plants for Ceylon. It is not surprising to see that there are so few in 

 the Upper Gangetic Plain and in Simla but for the rest, the numbers 

 seem to be too small ; and they would, no doubt, by longer and 

 repeated observations be raised considerably. There is, on the one 

 hand, no doubt about the fact, that each plant is characterized by 

 special periods, during which it develops a fulness of flowers, but there 

 are, on the other hand, also seasons, during which flowers are developed 

 not on the whole tree, but on portions of it, on certain branches or 

 twigs. This fact can be observed by everybody at any season of the 

 year. It would be interesting to inquire into the reasons why, v.g., 

 just this branch produces flowers, whilst its neighbour is in a state 

 of rest. 



With respect to the question touched above, viz., whether herbs 

 possessed of tubers, rhizomes, etc., reveal the same relations to climate 

 as woody plants do, I shall add two more examples, which might help 

 to form an opinion that comes nearer the truth, than too general 

 statements usually do. Of Simla I give the flowering times of the 

 plants belonging to the orders Liliaceze, Dioscoreacese, Orchidacete, and 

 Scitaminaceae ; of Darjeeling, of which I add the necessary meteorolo- 



