PLANTS OF NORTHERN OUJARAT. 
2:1 
PART II. 
OECOLOGY. 
T HE assignation of associations of plants found in India to the van on 9 
classes, formations and associations of Warming* a*nd other authors 
is rendered more difficult by the fact that this country is so very rarely 
mentioned in works dealing with plant ©ecology. Work done hitherto in 
India appears to have been mainly systematic, and as late as 1909 the 
English edition of Warming’s work contains only a very few unelaborat- 
ed references to India proper. 
Accepting Warming’s classification as our guide, we find that the plant 
formations of our area can be assigned to the following classes ( loc . cit , 
p. 1 30) * 
Class 1. —Hydrophytes. 
Class 2. — Helophytes. 
Class 5.— Halophytes. 
Class 6.— Lithopliytcs. 
Class 7. — Psammopliytes. 
Class 10— Psilophytes. 
Class 13.— Mesophytes. 
Of our whole area at least 95 per cent, comes into classes 7 and 3 0, and, 
as will be explained later, there is some doubt whether our Psammophytic 
associations are not really Psilophytic (Savannah). 
These various classes will now be considered in the order given. 
Class 1. Hydrophytes. 
A feature of the area is the frequent occurrence of shallow sheets of 
fresh water ranging from extensive tracts to water holes a foot or two 
across, some perennial and some only containing water during the mon- 
soon. These except the smallest, are, in accordance with Anglo-Indian 
usage, generally known as " Tanks ”, Several rivers also traverse the 
region, an account of which has already been given above (pp. 211—213). 
In these various tracts of water a number of water plants are found, of 
which those mainly or wholly submerged appear to us best united into 
one formation whether they are free-floating or attached. Since the rivers 
flow only slowly, except on the few occasions when they are in flood, and 
# Warming E., Orcologx of Plants, English edition, 1909. 
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