498 



NOTE ON FERNS COLLECTED AT PACHMARHl, C.P. 



BY 



R. J. D. Graham, Economic Botanist, C.P, 



General. — The following note is the result of collecting tom's 

 made in Octobei' 1911, May 1912 and June 1914. The object of 

 the tours was to collect ferns for the Public Gardens, Pachmarhi. 

 ■So successlul were the collections yielding from a comparatively 

 small area the large number of 41 species that it has seemed worth 

 while placing the results on record. The absence of any records of 

 the Crjrptogamic Flora in the Central Provinces furnishes an additional 

 excuse for publishing the note. At the same time the hope is 

 expressed that the present list may form the starting point of a 

 detailed survey within the limits of these Provinces of this most 

 interesting and graceful group of plants. 



Situation. — Pachmarhi, the summer residence of the Local 

 Administration, is situated in 22° 28' N. and 78" 26' E. on a plateau 

 in the Mahadeo Hills of Satpura Range. The town gives the 

 name to the plateau and surrounding country, the area extending 

 to 23 square miles of which 12 square miles are occupied by the 

 plateau. The elevation of the plateau is roughly 3,500 ft.; the 

 encircling hills rise in places to 4,500 feet w^hile the ravines descend 

 at least 1,000 feet. Pachmarhi is reached by a road 32 miles long 

 running to the south from Piparia station on the main line between 

 Itarsi and Jubbulpore. 



Tojjograjpluj . — The plateau surrounded by its higher hills from 

 which, however, it is separated by deep ravines, is somewhat cup- 

 shaped. The deep and wild ravines which radiate from all sides 

 contrast sharply with the parklike plateau where grassy vistas 

 among trees of 8horea rohusta, Gsertn., Terminalia tomentosa, Bedd., 

 and Eugenia jamholana, Lamk., present a very homelike aspect. It 

 is to the ravines or khuds that one must turn in the search for 

 ferns though very xerophyllous forms occur on the plateau itself. 

 So narrow are the khuds in places with their wall-like sides tower- 

 ing to a height of over 1,000 feet that the sun reaches the depths 

 for but a few hours, minutes in some places, daily. Running at the 

 foot of the khuds are perennial crystal streams which with the half 

 shade furnish the moisture necessary for a natural conservatory. 

 No adequate description of the grandeur of the scenery can be 

 ■conveyed in a few lines. Those who have not been privileged to 

 see the glories of Pachmarhi may glean a faint idea of the reality 

 from the first chapters of " The Highlands of Central India." 



Geology. — The rock is a sandstone of enormous thickness known 

 as the Pachmarhi sandstone belonging to the Mahadeva group of 

 the upper Gondwana series. The thickness has been estimated at 



