Page:The Journal of Indian Botany.djvu/506



In January last the writer published a short paper on the distribution of Liverworts in the Western Himalayas. (Journal of Indian Botany, January, 1920). It was pointed out there that the number of Liverworts decreases as we pass from the east to the west horizontally, and the same law holds good in passing vertically upwards after a certain altitude, not only in the Outer Himalayan Range but also in the Middle and the Inner Ganges. It was also mentioned that beyond the Inner Himalayas there were no Liverworts in the region visited by the writer. The valley of Kashmir was not dealt with in this connection in that paper owing to the meagreness of collections at the writer's disposal.

Since then the writer has had the opportunity of travelling through a large part of the country beyond the Himalayas and of making more satisfactory observations on the distribution of Liverworts in Kashmir than he had been able to do before this. The route followed was after crossing the Himalayas was as follows:—From the Baralacha pass through Rupshu and across the Lachalung and Taghlang la passes to Leh, and from there, after travelling along the Indus for some distance, across the Fotu la, the Namyika la and lastly the Zoji la into the Kashmir valley, and ultimately after crossing the Banihal pass into the Punjab plain again.

It is proposed to give some more, facts about the distribution of Liverworts observed during this journey.

In order to reach the Main Himalayan chain it was necessary to pass through a good deal of country already traversed by the writer on former occasions but the opportunity was taken of supplementing the observations made before. The exact path was from Dalhousie to Chamba, then up the Kavi for some distance in order to cross the Kugti pass (17,000 ft.) into Lahoul, and then up the Chenab to the Baralacha pass. The observations made before in this