4. 



438 DR. T. AlfDERSOy OS IXDIAX ACAXTKACEJl. 



western peninsula, where the total nuniher of species is 1G7. Of 

 these more than half are peculiar to the province — an additional 

 proof that it is in this province of India that Acanthacese acquire 

 their greatest development. Burmah ranks next, the total num- 

 ber of species in it being 102, and those that are peculiar 62, 

 or more tlian half the entire aumber. In Eastern Bengal, 

 Ceylon, and the Himalaya, placed in this sequence according to 

 the number of species of Acanthacea; found in them, the propor- 

 tion tliat the peculiar species bear to the total number is much 

 less than in the western peninsula and Burmah. The provinces of 

 Central India, Northern Hindostan,and the Lower Gaugetic plain, j 



where cultivation, carried on for niany^ ^g^s, has left hardly any 

 tracts covered with forests, do not favour the existence of Acan- 

 thaceje. Accordingly in Central India, which of these three 

 provinces possesses the largest number of Acanthacea^, only 46 

 species are found, of which three are peculiar. If we exclude 

 from the species found in Northern Hindostan the seven species 

 already mentioned as extending into that region from the coun- 

 tries to the west of the Indus, only thirty species remain, all of 

 which have a wide geographical range in India, and in many 

 cases are found in other parts of the tropics. Thirty-three 

 species occur in the Lower Gangetic plain ; and only one of them, 

 CalopJtanes Nagcliana, is peculiar to the region. Twenty-seven 

 species have been discovered in iTie IMalayan peninsula, and 14 

 are peculiar; but both these numbers will probably be much 

 increased, and the proportion of peculiar species altered, w^hen the 

 mountains of this province have been fully explored. Tliese 

 results are given in a tabular form on pages 440 and 441. In 

 each of the divisions of this table the first column shows 

 the number of species of each genus which are peculiar to a 

 province, and the second column the total number of species of 

 the genus in the same district. In this manner the table 

 indicates the distribution of the genera in the nine provinces of 

 India. 



Some of the regions of India are marked by the prevalence of 

 certain genera of Acantliacea>, and frequently by the abundance of 

 species of allied genera, which I have classed as tribes or sub- 

 tribes. Tor example, the subtribe Strobilantheae is represented 

 in Eastern Bengal by 40 species, or very nearly half the number 

 of Acanthacese found in the district, Avhile more than half the 

 peculiar species are members of this subtribe. In Ceylon, the 



