150 FLORA INDICA. 



The alluvial plain through which the great western rivers 

 debouche into the Gulfs of Kach and Cambay is perfectly flat^ 

 and in many places fertUe and richly cultivated. Its seasons 

 are very similar to those of the Concan, but a good deal less 

 rain falls. At Baroch the average fall is about 33 inches^ at 

 Baroda it is 31 inches^ at Ahmedabad only 16^ and probably 

 considerably less to the north and west of that place^ where 

 the plain is continuous with the desert of Marwar. There are 

 occasional hot winds from the north-east and east, and the 

 cold and hot seasons are similar to those of lower Sindh. 



The hilly district of Bariah, at the western extremity of 

 the Vindhia, participates in the general featui-es of the lower 

 part of the valley of the Nerbada. The hills are densely co- 

 vered with forest, and very unhealthy for a considerable part 

 of the year, especially after the close of the rainy season. The 

 rain-faU is probably much greater than in the plain of Gujerat. 



The district of Kach (or Cutch), which is separated from 

 Katiwar by the Gulf of Kach, a narrow arm of the sea, from 

 Sindh by the most eastern branch of the Indus, and from 

 Marwar by the Run (a very singular saline and more or less 

 marshy plain, in which the river Luni loses itself), has a very 

 similar climate to the peninsula of Gujerat, being like that 

 traversed by a range of hills running from west to east. It 

 may therefore (for our purposes) with more propriety be con- 

 sidered a part of Gujerat, than to belong to Sindh, to which 

 physically as weU as politically it is more nearly related. The 

 northern districts of both Kach and Katiwar, being screened 

 from the rain-bringing winds by the hills, are extremely arid. 



Our knowledge of the vegetation of Gujerat is entirely de- 

 rived from Dr. Gibson's excellent paper in the 'Bombay Me- 

 dical Transactions.' On the open plain there is a very rapid 

 transition, in advancing northward, from the Concan vegeta- 

 tion to that of Marwar and Sindh. Between the Tapti and 

 Nerbada this is already weU marked, and north of the latter 

 river the Sindh vegetation of stunted Acacia and Capparis 

 aphylla predominates. The forest which skirts the base of 



