Page:The Journal of Indian Botany.djvu/455

DBOUGHT KESISTING PLANTS IN THE DECCAN. 33 than the average. The branches of the plant also were fewer and much shorter. The root of the plant was peculiar. It was about two feet long and i inch in diameter over the greater part of its length and practically without lateral branches.

12. Tridax procumbens L.— Very common. It was found on brown rather sticky soil at Belapur on May 7, 1919. The soil round the roots contained 2'61 per cent, of available moisture.

In different situations the plant varies as regards the length of the branches, the size of the loaves, and their hairiness.

In the present instance the size of the leaves was slightly re- duced and the hairiness somewhat more accentuated than usual. The root was a slender tap root 6 — 9 inches long and about § inch in diameter, devoid of lateral branches, but with a few minute feeding roots in the lower half.

13. Vernonia cioerea Less. — Common. It was found on brown rather sticky soil at Belapur, on May 7, 1919. The soil round the roots contained 2'24 per cent, of available moisture.

The plant shows variation as regards size in different situations, and in the present instance also the plants were shorter and the leaves smaller, the root was a tap root 6 — 9 inches long and about i — g inch in thickness, apparently without any lateral branches.

14. Cocculus villosus DC— Common. It was found on light to medium black soil which was not sticky, at Belapur, on May 7, 1919. The soil round the roots contained 2"22 per cent, of available moisture.

This plant also showed only reduction in the length of the stem branches and in the leaf surface as usual. The root of the plant was about a foot and a half long and about | — 3 inch in diameter apparently without any lateral branches.

15. Morinda tinctoria Boxb.— var. tomentosa. It was found in medium black sticky soil at Newasa * in the Ahmednagar district, on May 8, 1919. The soil round the roots contained 3.93 per cent, of available moisture.

The plant grows into a shrub or small tree, and in the present instance the plant was apparently a root-sucker. There were several other similar root suckers close by. They showed no deviation from the normal. The root was long, about I inch in diameter with slender laterals spreading about eight inches below the soil.

16. Caralluma fimbriata Wall— It was found on May 8, 1919, at Newasa in a limy soil which though dusty was inclined to be sticky, and contained round the roots 202 per cent, of available moisture.


 * Rainfall comparable with that of Shevgaon as shown above.