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make an abrupt change.
Grass gives way to more
shrubs and ferns. Some 4 miles
E. of Mahableshwar itself the
scrup chaparral-type cover
blends rather abruptly into
a thick evergreen forest;
a variety of trees, all small in
stature, rarely exceeding 25 or
30 feet even in the creek
gullies, constitute a forest
which in almost every respect
resembles the live oaks forests
near the coast of California -
trunks and branches covered
with mosses and lichen,
ground covered with a thick
mantle of leaf mold in
some places. On the drier,
more exposed knolls clumps
of evergreen trees interlaced
with patches of grass field.

Specimens were collected in
a variety of nitches between
3 miles E. of Mahableshwar and
the town itself. Awhile the
countryside does not change

its character in that distance,
certain micro-environments can
be more easily reached along
the way than in any one spot
alone. Most collecting was done,
however, in the vicinity of
the LINGMALA forest rest house,
located directly in the forest
on a knoll overlooking a forest-
clad valley. An excellent
collecting trail, from the rest
house down into the little
valley, looks to a spectacular
waterfall; the valley narros and ends
abruptly at an immense vertical
cliff forming the upper end of
a vast canyon. Aquatic col-
lectin in the flowing stream
and adjacent stagnant pools
above the falls proved pro-
ductive. The greatest bulks
of specimens were collected
by sweeping reeds and grass
near the stream, or the
shrub understory in the shade
of the forest where even the
ground was still damp.