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NOTES ON A COLLECTING TOUR AT RAMTEK, C. P. 



BY 



R. J. D. Graham, M.A., B.Sc, 



Economic Botanist, C. P. 



General. — The following note is the result of a collecting tour 

 made in the first week of September last year. The object with 

 which the tour was undertaken was that of comparing the flora of 

 the transition formations with that of the Deccan trap. So far as 

 the comparison is concerned, the tour was a failure, for with few 

 exceptions both formations showed a more or less common flora. 

 As however no list of Central Provinces plants has been published, 

 I propose to give the list of plants collected at Ramtek, From a 

 botanical point of view the Central Provinces form a particularly 

 interesting area as they furnished the meeting place of the Bombay 

 or Western flora and the Bengal or Eastern flora. Nagpur may 

 practically be taken as the Eastern limit of the Deccan trap 

 and with it of the Deccan flora. Eastwards through Bhandara and 

 Chatisgarh the Bengal flora commences. 



Situation. — The town of Ramtek, the headquarters of the tahsil 

 bearing the name, is situated in 210-24' N. and 79°-20' E,, 28 miles 

 north-east of Nagpur by road. A mile and a half east of the 

 town is the hill of Ramtek. Crowned with its white temples it 

 forms a conspicuous object rising abruptly 600 feet above the 

 almost level Wainganga plain. The hill itself is about 1,400 feet 

 above sea level. 



To]}ogra]jhy . — The hill is a detached hog-backed spur forming 

 almost the last link in the chain of hills known as Amnagar Range 

 of Bhandara. On the east the range is continued by the low-lying 

 hillocks of Mansar and Kandri with their famous manganese 

 deposits. Four miles east the Sur river has broken through the 

 range in a narrow gorge. In 1909 this gorge was closed to form 

 the Ramtek Reservoir, giving a spread of water, when full, of nine 

 square miles to the north of the hill. The hill terminates on the 

 west in the form of a horse shoe or V, the inner sides enclosing the 

 Ambala tank near which is a fair sized village. On the south and 

 west sides the hill ends abruptly in lofty natural scarps. No 

 springs were found on the hill sides. 



Geology. — The Ramtek Range consists of quartzites often 

 slightly micaceous. The strata are inclined at SO^-SS" dipping 

 towards the south. The freshly fractured stone appears red in 

 sunlight doubtless giving rise to the old name for the hill Sindu- 

 ragiri, " the vermillion mount." The high elevation of the strata 

 accounts for the absence of any springs. 



