12 GENERAL COLLETT AND MR. W. B. HEMSLEY ON PLANTS 
The twelve largest natural orders are :— 
Genera. Species. Genera. Species. 
Leguminos® ......... 38 83 Convolvulacez ...... 9 25 
Composite ......... 34 57 Verbenacem ......... 13 21 
Dabiate........r.... 23 40 Serophularinee ... 12 18 
Acanthaceæ ......... 16 29 Asclepiadee ......... 14 15 
Rubiaceæ ......i.... 18 28 Capparidex ......... 3 12 
Euphorbiacee ...... 18 26 Ranunculacee ...... 6 8 
With the exception of the Cepparidee, these orders occupy 
something closely approaching their relative positions in the 
flora of India and in the flora of the whole world. The orders 
represented in the collection by only one species are :—Dilleni- 
aces, Crucifere, Bixineæ, Pittosporeæ, Tamarisciner, Zygo- 
phylleæ, Simarubeæ, Ochnacex, Burseraceæ, Coriarieæ, Samy- 
daceæ, Ficoideæ, Cornaceæ, Plumbagineæ, Salvadoraceæ, Sola- 
naceæ, Orobanchaceæ, Plantagineæ, Aristolochiaceæ, Piperaceæ, 
Chloranthaceæ, Proteaceæ, Elæagnaceæ, Juglandaceæ, Salicineæ, 
Cycadaceæ, Irideæ, Pontederiaceæ, Alismaceæ, Naiadaceæ, and 
Eriocauleæ; or nearly one third of the total. That the Cruciferæ 
should be represented by Cardamine hirsuta only is perhaps the 
most striking and unexpected fact brought out by this list, 
though Crucifere are also rare in the Khasia hills. 
An examination of the distribution of the genera shows that 
there is scarcely any endemiv element. There is the curious 
little uniovulate papilionaceous Neocollettia; Atherolepis, Adelo- 
stemma, and Physostelma in Asclepiadex ; Blinkworthia in Con- 
volvulaceæ; and Cystacanthus in Acanthacee; and we have 
exhausted the number of generie types in the collection that are 
restricted to the region, even if we extend it southward to 
Singapore. 
Out of 460 genera, 122 are generally dispersed, either in the 
tropies or in temperate and subtropical regions; and 96 are 
widely spread, that is to say they occur in some part of America, 
besides having a considerable range in the Old World.  Ex- 
cluding these 218 genera, 213 extend to North India, 166 to the 
Malay Archipelago, 136 to China, 90 to Australia, 36 to Poly- 
nesia, and 82 to Africa. Adding the number of genera from 
North India to those of wide range, we have 431—thus leaving a 
very small number that extend to only one of the other regions 
named. These figures therefore go to show how very wide are 
the areas of the majority of northern genera. 
