FLORA OF MATHER AN AND MAHABIj^SHWAR. 397 



plants on either hill which are not found on the other, which 

 was published with the last edition of this Catalogue, and is so 

 full of interest that I have asked Mr. PhipsJn to re-publish it 

 as a supplement to this edition, and I have added to it a few notes 

 based on the observations of the late Mr. Chester Macnaghten. But 

 after full account is taken of all divergences, it will still be found 

 that very many of the plants included in the Catalogue are common 

 to the two hills. Such a coincidence is favoured by the practical 

 identity of their geological formation, and by the circumstance that 

 there is no great difference in the range of their mean temperature at 

 •different seasons and in their rainfall. Both Mahableshwar and 

 Matheran are, roughly speaking, huge masses of trap, capped by a 

 thin layer of laterite. Both are within sight of the sea. Both are 

 swept by the same dry winds in the cold weather and by the same 

 monsoon storms, and both enjoy the full benefit of the monsoon rains. 

 Mr. N. A. Moos, Director of the Government Observatory at Golaba, 

 has favoured me with information as to the temperature and rainfall 

 on both hills deduced from the figures recorded at the Observatory 

 during a period of ten years ; and it appears that the average mean 

 temperature ranges at Mahableshwar from 63*3° F. to 71*70° ; and 

 from 67"8° to 78*5° at Matheran. The average rainfall at Maha- 

 bleshwar amounts to 281*4 inches ; and at Matheran to 224*7 inches. 

 Under such concordant influences, it is not surprising that a marked 

 similarity should be noticeable in the general outward forms of 

 vegetation on the two hills, due to the frequent presence of tho 

 same characteristic plants on both. Everywherb at Mahableshwar, 

 as at Matheran, we find the Myrtle tribe represented by endless woods 

 of the beautiful Jambul tree [Eugenia jamholana), the Melastomas 

 by the Anjan {Memecylon edule), the Laurels by the Pisa {Actinoda- 

 phne Boolceri), and the Madder tribe by the thorny Gela {Randia 

 dumetorum). There is the same undergrowth of shrubs and herbaceous 

 plants, the natural orders of '^ Leguminos^," ^' Acanthaceas " and 

 " Compositaa " being specially and numerously represented. There 

 are many showy climbers and trailers and creepers common to both 

 hills ; as there are Orchids and Dendrobiums and other parasitic plants ; 

 while everywhere the little silver-fern covers with equal impartiality 

 ?5^^^^red bank and rock. The flora of both Mahableshwar and 



