42 THE JOUENAL OF INDIAN BOTANY.
leaflets which also serves the same purpose as above, e.g. Nos. 1, 7, 8, 9, 10, 24, 25, 26, 27. Some plants again are more or less hairy and protected from the scorching sun, e.g. Nos. 2, 5, 11, 13, 14, 24, 29, 35, 37. Some have got rather thickish leaves which are well protected against loss of water, e.g. Nos. 12, 19, 21, 33 and 36. Some plants again are protected from desiccation by having in their tissues latex or a kind of milky juice, e.g. Nos. 29, 36. Nos. 12 and 36 seem also to contain some water storage tissue. No. 36 again has palisade tissue on both sides of the leaf. As regards the herbaceous plants, most of them also are more or less hairy, Nos. 41, 42, 44, 47, 49 and 50 being more particularly so. Such of them as are not at all hairy are only Nos. 43 and 46. The young leaves of No. 51 are puberulous though later on many of the hairs drop off. No. 43 has very small and somewhat wrinkled leaves while Nos. 46 and 51 have leaves which are inclined to be somewhat fleshy.
It is needless to say that several of these plants also show a great reduction in size under the abnormally dry conditions.
The number of grasses found actually living is disappointing but it indicates Andropogon monticola Schult., and possibly Ischaemum pilosam Hack, to be the most resistant to drought of the common grasses of the Deccan, the former occurring in murum soils, the latter in black soils. Andropogon annulatus, Forsk. and Andropogon pertu- sus Willd. were found to be green and in flower in a small patch at Parner, but their greenness was probably due to some rain which had fallen at Parner a few days previously.
The list of plants observed is not quite exhaustive since it was not possible to note each and every species in such a short time. The list is however fairly representative of the tract at the given time, though in a normal year perhaps it would have been possible to find many more species which were unable to survive this year.
The summary of observations shows rather clearly that beyond the average fluctuations in the characters of the various plants found living we do not find any great deviations even in such abnormal years.
It may be mentioned here that the enquiry which was perhaps the first of its kind on this side of the Bombay Presidency was under- taken solely at the suggestion of Dr. H. H. Mann the present head of the Bombay Agricultural Department to whom I feel greatly indebted.
