210 
PLANTS OF NORTHERN. GUJARAT. 
Phyllanthus our list gives five species, only one of which is mentioned by 
Cooke under a statiqn in Central Gujarat. These examples, which are 
taken quite at random, could be multiplied almost indefinitely, while for 
the families Cyperacece and Graminea , Cooke’s Flora very rarely men- 
tions Gujarat at all. On the whole, seeing that we have been working 
Much an inadequately explored region for more than two years, Cooke’s 
prophecy that undiscovered species were few has been justified, since we 
have been able to add only twenty-two truly wild and three alien 
species not mentioned by him, and to raise to the rank of genuine 
members of the Bombay Flora ten species excluded in his work.* But 
from the point of view of enlarging our knowledge of the distribution 
of species within the Presidency and of plant associations this paper 
may, it is hoped, be of souie value. 
2. Gujarat— Physical and Administrative Divisions . 
Unlike the Konkan, which is a homogeneous area of uniform soil and 
uniform climate, Gujarat even more than the Deccan is from a scientific 
point of view an unsatisfactory geographical unit. Administratively the 
term is conveniently used to include the Northern Division of the 
Bombay Presidency (excluding the Thana district, which is regarded 
as part of the Konkan) and the Agencies of Rewa Kantha, Mahi Kantha 
and Palanpur. Linguistically it includes all the country within which 
Gujarati is the vernacular. But as used hitherto in connection with 
the Botanical Survey, the area included by the term is a collection of 
heterogeneous tracts, differing essentially in soil, climate and vegetation. 
In the southern parts of the Surat district the rainfall is heavy and the 
clay soil yields rice ; the conditions are like those of the Konkan. The 
northern parts of the Surat district, and the whole of the Broach district 
are an almost unbroken plain of black soil with a moderate rainfall. The 
Panch Mahals is a country of mainly stony or gravelly soil ; while from 
Ahmedabad to the Rann of Cutch and Deesa is a tract of pure sand, the 
rainfall in the west of which is scanty and uncertain. It would be 
difficult to imagine a more diverse collection of climates and surface soils. 
A roughly satisfactory division would be (i) North Gujarat, — all the 
country on the right bank of the Mahi as far as Kathiawar and the Rann, 
(u) Central Gujarat West,—' all the country between the Mahi and 
the Tapti, not 1 ung included in (m), («*) Central Gujarat East, — the 
Panch Mahals District and the Rewa Kantha Agency, and (tv) South 
Gujarat,— the country south of the Tn pti. This is, of course, all merely 
■ ■ B I - • '■ ; ; - g . ; , 
# For lists of those species see Sec. 7, p. 219. 
