183 MR. M. P. EDGEWORTH—FLORULA MALLICA. 
Boerhaavia elegans, Agrostis scabrifolia, Panicum colonum and 
Hydaspicum, Cenchrus, and Pennisetum. 
It is a curious sight to see the numbers that go out from the 
villages into the desert to collect and eat the fruit of the Salvadora 
oleoides, called Pili, and the Capparis (Sodada) decidua. 
The late Dr. Stocks kindly communicated to me a list of his 
Sindh flora: there are only 19 Mallic plants, or 94:3 per cent., not 
common to Sindh; there are 76, or 77'7 per cent., not observed in 
the cis-Sutlej States by myself in 1834-8. No less than 227, or 
nearly 65 per cent., are common to North Africa and Arabia ; 88, 
or nearly 25 per cent. are European, while 73:8 per cent. are 
common to India proper, exclusive of the Punjab and Sindh. The 
most remarkable forms were Pappophorus, Stipagrostis, Cressa, 
Frankenia, Limneum, Dipterygiwm, and Neuroda. 
Among the Cryptogamic flora we have but four, exclusive of fungi, 
Marsilea, an Equisetum, Adiantum Capillus-Veneris, and a .Phascum. 
There are a few fungi found, and two of them are edible—one resem- 
bling a morel, called Kwmbha, which is found in profusion in the 
Rechnab Desert, and which is much liked by the natives and those 
of my European friends who have had the opportunity of tasting it, 
which I myself have not. The other is subterraneous, found in 
cultivated land near Multan, and called Boenphul, or earth-fruit, 
which I do not at all like. Unfortunately my collection of fungi 
was lost ; therefore I cannot enumerate the species. 
Lastly, I may point out the paucity of species in this flora—only 
338, exclusive of Cellulares, in an area exactly the half of Treland 
(in which Dr. Mackay enumerates 1057 in his ‘ Flora Hibernica’ ) 
—little more than what I collected in Banda, ith of its area. 
These species are distributed in 67 orders, exactly five, on an 
average, in each order; and in 226 genera, giving an average of 
1:5 to each genus,—very much less even than remarked upon by 
Dr. T. Anderson in his * Aden Florula. "There are very few genera 
of more than three species. Eragrostis has ten; Aristida, 9; 
Panicum, 8 ; Heliotropium, 7 ; and Corchorus, 6. 
I append descriptions of those species which have not been pub- 
lished, or which call for remark. There are some three or four 
which I cannot agree in uniting as Dr. Anderson did. My rea- 
sons I have given in detail in the notes. 
In fine, I beg to offer my thanks for the valuable assistance 
afforded to me at Kew by our President, Dr. Hooker, Professor 
Oliver, and Mr. Black. 
