1024 



A STUDY OF SEASHORE VEGETATION 



BY 



W. Burns, b.sc. (Edin.). 



(From the Botanical Laboratory of the Poona Agricultural College.) 

 In September 1910, I made a short study of the flora of a typical area 

 on the seashore, near Bassein, in the Thana District. Bassein is situated at 

 the mouth of the Kalyan creek. Between the village and the estuary lies 

 a barren tract of land partially intersected by muddy inlets and useful 

 only for grazing. At the extreme seaward edge of this runs a very bare 

 strip of land after which there is a slight drop and the beach proper begins. 

 The present paper refers to the vegetation of the bare strip of land for a 

 distance of about 1,100 yards from the suspension bridge on the coast 

 there. Observations were started about 250 yards from the bridge, since 

 from that place the strip was fairly uniform in its general appearance. 

 The following rough sketch gives an idea of the nature of the ground. 



TidejnsrJi. 



_ ■> 

 Scale m = too Yds. 



Inlet 



The whole area is divided up into five secondary areas : A, B, C, D and E- 

 In A there was no vegetation. The dunes here were low and the land 

 immediately behind them was very exposed, hence the lack of plants on this 

 spot. In B, however, plants began to appear. These were (1) seedlings of 

 Avicennia alba, the mangrove plant, that is so common on the coast. These 

 were not very big and had obviously been recently deposited. The biggest 

 had only two young foliage leaves showing above the cotyledons. In an 

 area of 25' X 25' ten such seedlings were found. This place was fifty 

 yards from the high tidemark of the season. At the tidemark, just 

 opposite the above mentioned area, the seedlings oi Avicennia were very 

 numerous. In an area 8' x 3' the number of Avicennia fruits found was 

 169 ; most of these had begun to germinate but none were fully rooted. 



The other plants on this area of 25' x 25' were (2) a small monocotyle- 

 donous plant like an Iphigenia, (3) the grass Cyperus conglomerates, (4) the 

 grass, Cynodon dactylon. These were sparsely scattered over the area. 



