AN ISLAND IN THE CHILKA LAKE. 277 



any but the more conspicuous species, an interesting comparison is possible. Two 

 points struck me particularly on my visits in the rainy season, viz. (i) the superior 

 brightness, size and conspicuousness of the flowers as compared with those of the 

 island, and (2) the much larger number of species of Graminaceae and of herbaceous 

 plants, including creepers. 



Among plants with showy flowers on Ganta Sila the commonest is the 

 beautiful Bauhinia tomentosa with pale yellow flowers bearing a conspicuous claret- 

 coloured spot on one of the petals. The shrub forms irregular thickets among the 

 blocks of rock on the steeper slopes. Neither it nor any of its genus is found on 

 Barkuda. Other plants with bright-coloured flowers collected in the space of five 

 minutes on the hill in vSeptember, 1919, were Cassia occidentalism Pavonia odorata, 

 Helictres isora, Argyraea speciosa and Ipomaea sepiaria. The only one of these seen 

 on Barkuda was the Ipomaea, of which a stray plant occasionally establishes itself 

 on the island. 



Numerous species of grasses were observed on Ganta Sila on this and other 

 occasions, but more important in the vegetation than any of them are the bamboo, 

 Bamhusa arundinaceac, and the reed, Phragmites karka. The latter forms a ring round 

 the base of the hill at the edge of the lake, while the former grows with great 

 luxuriance in thickets on the gentler slopes. 



The main difference between the creepers on Ganta Sila, where plants with 

 .this habit are extremely abundant in the thickets of Bauhinia and Bambusa, and 

 those on Barkuda, is that the majority on the hill are herbaceous, belonging mostly 

 to the Convolvulaceae and the Cucurbitaceae, while those on the islands are mainly 

 lianas with very stout woody stems of great length, the genus dominant among them 

 being Vitis, to use the generic name in a broad sense. On those parts of the hill 

 where more soil is present, many of the shrubs are identical with those on Barkuda, 

 one of the commonest being Weihea ceylonica . The large bushy Euphorbia abundant 

 at these spots is, however, different from either of the two large species of the genus 

 on the island. It is probably, as Colonel Gage informs me, E. tortilis, but the flowers 

 have not yet been examined. 



The fifth type of island in the Chilka Lake is that of Barkuda itself and its 

 sister-island Cherriakuda. The two are very similar in formation and vegetation. 



Among the genera (indigenous and feral), of which at least one species is 

 common in the district in which Barkuda is situated but none are found on the 

 island are, therefore, the following :— Phragmites, Bambusa, Bauhinia, Cassia, 

 Mucuna, Cipadessa, Pavonia, Helictres, Argyraea, Martynia, Barleria, Pandanus. 

 Those represented on the island merely by stray plants are Cereus, Barringtonia, 

 Mimusops, Calatropis, Ipomaea, Solanum, Evolvulus,. Clerodendron. The genus 

 represented by the most species on Barkuda is Ficus, with seven species, all capable of 

 growing into large trees. Euphorbia comes next with four species, two of which 

 are tree-like, while two are small and spreading. The subgenera assigned by Dr. 

 Carter to Vitis (Cissus and Cayratia of some authors) have three species between 

 them, all large creepers, and so have Capparis, with two creepers and an upright 



