PLANTS OF NORTHERN GUJARAT. 
217 
in July and August, when the whole country side is sodden. The country 
is, therefore, well adapted to annuals. The species mentioned at the 
beginning of the last paragraph as being exclusively Perso-Arabian are all 
xerophytes, except Alhagi camel orum which will be mentioned again below. 
Of these, Acacia Senegal inhabits stony or gravelly hills, while all the rest 
are purely sand plants. This is perhaps a convenient place to correct the 
prevalent but quite erroneous view that Acacia arabica, the “babhul” or 
(( baval is a xerophyte. On the contrary this species is hot only 
unable to subsist in places where there is not a constant supply of subsoil 
water, but is only able to reach its normal development in places such as 
river banks and tank beds, and can thrive with the lower part of its stem 
submerged for several months every year. It is true that Acacia arabica 
is abundant in Sind, but then marshes are abundant in Sind, and in Sind 
as with us it is only in marshes, by tanks and on the banks of the Indus 
and the canals that it thrives. The true fact is that this tree is ombro- 
phobous but not xerophytic ; and of this, there are other examples, for 
instance, Alhagi camclorum, which inhabits tank beds and river beds. 
Marshes and tanks being common in our area Cyperacece are very well 
represented, especially the genera Cyperus, Fimbristylis, and Scirpus. 
On the other hand, true meadows and damp shady woods are entirely 
absent,* which fact accounts for the entire absence of 0 rchtdacea, 
Aracece , A m ary ll id a cere , Scitaminecc , Urticaceous herbs and Liliaceous 
herbs (except Asphodeius , which finds its necessary moisture in irrigated 
fields). Touching as it does, only the fringe of the very dry Malwa forest 
system, it is natural that the tree flora of our area should be scanty, and 
the more important tree-bearing families such as Guttifera , Rutacea , 
Anacardiacece , Combretacea , Myrtacea , Ebenacerc , Laurincrc , and 
others should be very thinly represented. The Gramineee are very stronglv 
represented, both in number of individuals and in number of species. 
But there is a predominance of the tougher and more xerophytic forms. 
Thus while delicate shade-loving genera such as Isachne and Arundinell a 
are entirely absent, stiff-stemmed and stiff-leaved genera such as Cenchrus, 
Clitoris and Eleusine are particularly prominent. Grasslands + are a 
feature of N >rth Gujarat, and Ahmedabad is the head-quarters of the inci- 
pient dairy and butter-making industry. The association of these grass- 
lands will be described below (Part II, Sec. vi, pp. 232-233). 
* See, however, our mesophytic associations described in Part II, pp. 236-237. 
t Such grasslands invariably contain a small proportion of trees or large shrubs and 
hence, must all be included under the general oecoiogical type of Savannah. 
