110 



A LIST OF GEASSES FROM AHMEDABAD AND SURAT 



With notes on their habitats, ecological relations, and 

 time of Jioiuering . 



BY 



L. J. Sedgwick, I.C.S. 



These notes are based on observations made at Snrat during the 

 rains of 1912 and at Ahmedabad during the rains of 1913. Con- 

 sequently the areas worked are (1) the immediate neighbourhood 

 of Surat City on the south side, say, the area contained in the 

 southern quadrant of a circle drawn with a 6-mile radius from 

 Nanpura, and (2) the immediate neighbourhood of Ahmedabad, say, 

 an entire circle drawn with a 5-mile radius with its centre at the 

 Delhi Gate. A few species are recorded from the eastern parts of 

 the Surat and northern pai-ts of the Ahmedabad districts. But 

 for the most part the records are from the above-mentioned areas. 

 The authorities used are Lisboa's Monograph on Bombay Grasses 

 and Cooke's Flora of the Bombay Presidency. The latter, which 

 is really a very fine work, is the foundation of a record of the 

 distribution of plants in this Presidency which will require revision 

 from time to time in the future in order to incorporate the results 

 of new observers, as well as to correct some of the descriptions 

 which err occasionally through want of fresh specimens for 

 examination. In no point is the treatment of the order graminece 

 more incomplete than in the accounts of the distribution of the 

 various species. It is apparent that Professor Cooke had to base 

 his accounts of distribution on the recorded habitats of the 

 specimens in the herbaria of about four or five collectors only. 

 In very few cases has he ventured to describe a grass as being 

 ^' common " either throughout the Presidency or in a particular 

 area. Among recorded habitats Gujerat figures very rarely, 

 for which reason the present list may be of use to future 

 workers. And it will be noticed that five species are entered 

 in this list which are not given by Cooke as denizens of 

 the Presidency. From the fact that among these is Chloris virgata, 

 Sw., which is one of the most abundant and hardiest of grasses in 

 Gujerat the reader will realize what a lot of additions to Professor 

 Cooke's Flora must be expected in the future. In this connexion 

 I would like to throw out a suggestion that the Society might under- 

 take the compilation of a catalogue of plants on the lines of the 

 London Catalogue, in which after dividing India into botanical 

 provinces, each with a separate member, the numbers of the provinces 

 in which each plant has been recorded up-to-date would be entered 

 against the name of the plant. Those who are acquainted with the 

 London Catalogue are aware of its usefulness to field botanists, both 



