Page:The Journal of Indian Botany.djvu/183

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THE

Journal of Indian Botany.

Vol. I.
JANUARY, 1920.
No. 5.

DISTRIBUTION OF LIVERWORTS IN THE WESTERN HIMALAYAS

BY

Professor of Botany, Government College, Lahore.


A few months ago the writer had an occasion to visit the eastern part of the Chandrabhaga valley, the Lingti plain beyond the Inner Himalayas, and the Beas valley, where collections of Liverworts were made. These collections along with others made in various other parts of the Western Himalayas by the writer during the last few years afford sufficient data for a survey of the general distribution of Liverworts in this region which it is proposed to discuss in this paper. A number of species from various parts of the Western Himalayas has already been published by the writer in the New Phytologist, 1913 and 1914, aud the Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society, 1916 and 1917.

{{c|Geographical.

By "Western Himalayas" is to be understood that part of the Himalayan range which extends from the Baralacha pass on the east to the Indus in Gilgit on the west. On the Baralacha pass are the sources of the Chandrabhaga on the southern side while on the northern and eastern sides are the feeders of the Indus and the Sutlej respectively. About this place also the main Himalayan chain gives rise to a branch, the Middle Himalayas, a continuation more or less of the main axis, and running to the west parallel to the above-mentioned range towards its south. The Middle Himalayan range gives rise, near its beginning, to a high ridge, the Bara Bangahal range, running at right angles to it towards the south, which forms the watershed between the Beas on the east and the Ravi on tho west. From the Bara