398 JOURNAL, ^ 0MB AY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. X. 



Matheran can, therefore, be conveniently included in a single Cata- 

 logue ; and I have also included in my list a few plants which are not 

 actually found on efiher hill, but which are conspicuous enough to catch 

 the eye of even the most rapid traveller on the higher levels of the 

 w^ell-worn roads from Poena and Wathar to Panchgani and Mahablesh- 

 war, and also some plants noticed on the FitzGerald Ghat between 

 Mahableshwar and Pertabgarh. 



It only remains for me to add that this Catalogue is framed with 

 the same object and on the same general plan as the former one. 

 It is meant, with the aid of the appended index of vernacular names, 

 to furnish a ready method of learning the scientific names of plants. 

 Many visitors to the hills take an interest in learning those names even 

 if they have no intention of undertaking the serious study of Botany in 

 any of its various branches. With some, however, the interest thus 

 acquired leads to further study, which becomes all the pleasanter 

 for the knowledge which has been gained, without too much trouble, 

 of the names by which the plants in which they are interested are 

 known to the scientific world ; — just as it is pleasanter and more 

 profitable to study the grammar of a new language after the student 

 has acquired some portion of its vocabulary, and learnt to speak it a 

 little, than before. 



In the first two columns of the Catalogue, the nomenclature adopted 

 is that of Hooker's " Flora of British India," Vols. I to VI. The 

 words " Herb. Co,," after the name of a plant in the second column, 

 indicate that the Mahableshwar herbarium, presented to the Society by 

 Dr. Theodore Cooke^' contains a specimen of the plant. In the third 

 column, the vernacular names are spelt according to the Hunterian 

 system. The word ' vel ' or ' yel,' which recurs frequently as a com- 

 ponent part of a name, means a ' creeper ' or 'climber.' The words 

 ' lahan ' and ' dhakta ' (fern. ' dhakti ') mean ' small,' ' motha ' (fem, 

 * mothi ') means ' big,' ' pandhra ' means ' white,' ' kala ' * black,' 

 ' tambda ' ' red,' ' pivla' ' yellow,' and * kadu' ' bitter.' The prefix * ran ' 

 indicates a 'jungle' plant, or, as we should say, a 'wild' plant; 

 though nearly all the plants in the list may be regarded as wild or 

 indigenous on Mahableshwar or Matheran, the more notable exceptions 

 being the hedgerow Bose, the Oak, the Casuarina, the Lantana, the 

 Strawberry, the Eucalyptus, the Spanish " Lady of i^J^xff^,^ 



