NOTES. 
261 
Acacia arabica. The wild flora is very xerophytic, the district receiving 
very little rain. The heavy fall in the summer monsoon is only on the 
western slope of the Ghats, the eastern side remaining dry, like the 
Uva patanas in the south-west monsoon. At Poona there are some 
interesting gardens, and there is a herbarium of the Bombay flora at 
the College of Science under charge of Prof. Gammie. 
The dry country continues all the way to Bangalore by the S. M. 
Railway, but in one or two places, e.g.^ near Londa, the line passes into 
the hilly district of the Ghats, and there is a somewhat richer flora 
with stretches of jungle. At Watara station on this line the road to 
Mahabaleshwar, the Bombay sanitarium, branches off. This place lies 
at about 4,500 feet at the top of the Ghats, has an enormous summer 
rainfall, and is said to be an excellent centre for the study of the 
Bombay flora. I did not myself visit it. 
From Bangalore, which is an interesting place and has a good 
Botanic Garden, there is a considerable descent into the plains of 
Madras, the general effect of which is similar to that of the cultivated 
Tamil country of Jaffna in the north of Ceylon; but there are several 
ranges of hills, which are covered with a scrubby jungle not unlike in 
general appearance to that on the hills between Nalanda and Dambulla. 
Madras itself is of no special botanical interest. The headquarters 
of the Government Botanist are at Ootacamund in the Mlgiri Mountains, 
to which I next proceeded. The ascent is very interesting, by a steep 
cog-wheel railway, leading from the hot steamy valley of Metupalaiyam 
to the little sanitarium of Coonoor at 5,500 feet. The flora at the 
foot of the Ghat has the general aspect of that of the North Matale 
District, and gradually changes on the ascent to a flora not unlike that 
of Nuwara Eliya ; there is much less cultivation on these slopes than 
in Ceylon. From Coonoor to Ootacamund the gradual ascent of 2,000 
feet is over open rolling hilly country, cultivated in the hollows by 
the hill tribes. Ootacamund itself, being in the centre of a large 
plateau, has a comparatively dry climate, the violence of the north-east 
monsoon spending itself further east, and that of the south-west mon- 
soon further west in the Kunda Hills, which drop suddenly to the low- 
country at the Western edge of the plateau, just like the Ceylon 
mountains at Horton Plains. In all directions round Ootacamund 
the country consists of open patanas, like the Uva patanas as seen 
from Hakgala, but at a higher level. The flora is that of the drier 
parts of Horton Plains, the jungle being found only in sheltered 
valleys. To the botanist familiar with the up-country flora of Ceylon, 
that of the Nilgiris is of singular interest, the genera being mainly the 
same, but the species commonly different. All these mountain top 
floras of the south, including those of the Nilgiris, Anamalais, and Palnis, 
require much further investigation and comparison. Ootacamund is a 
particularly good station for such work, and there are good resthouses 
at various places on the plateau ; the climate is perhaps the finest in 
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