SUBSUBAREAS OF BRITISH INDIA. _ 145 
It would be quite beyond the scope of the present paper to 
attempt to show that the geographie distribution of the other 
Natural Orders in India led to the same conclusions which 
I have drawn from the Cyperace®. It is so easy to pick out a 
few striking instances that make for one’s own theory, and to 
overlook or underestimate others; it would be difficult to estab- 
lish any conclusion without a complete tabulation and analysis of 
the whole material. The Crucifere are evidently part of our 
European element, and entered India at Kashmir; the Diptero- 
carpe® are part of our Eastern element, and entered India from 
the South-east, and soon found a way across to the Nilghiri- 
Ceylon region. But it is not so easy to make summary state- 
ments about Leguminose, Composite, Gramina, Orchidacex. 
Probably most Indian botanists will agree that there is a vast 
mass of genera which extend throughout the Himalaya and 
Khasia, often reaching to the Malay Peninsula and islands, 
which are absent, or nearly so, from the Madras Peninsula; that, 
at some time since the present Orders and Genera of Phenogams 
were pretty well settled, there has existed a much easier route 
for plants from the Malay Peninsula to the Nilghiri-Ceylon area 
than now exists. As illustrations (not proofs) of these state- 
ments, I give five examples :— 
(1) The genus Quercus extends from Kashmir to Malaya— 
numerous in species and individuals, but no Oak is indi- 
genous in Ceylon, Malabaria, or Coromandelia. The Oak 
probably reached India with the Eastern element, and it 
appears not improbable that it travelled along the Himalaya 
westward. 
(2) The Pines have a similar distribution in India to the Oaks, 
with the exception that one Conifer, Podocarpus neriifolia, 
D. Don, has reached the Nilghiri-Ceylon area from the 
Malay Peninsula. In this ease the Pines proper may have 
entered India at Kashmir, whilst the genus Podocarpus 
may have come from the South-east. 
(3) The Ericacew have a similar distribution to the Oaks, with 
the exception that Two species (Rhododendron arboreum, 
Smith, and Gaultheria fragrantissima, D. Don) have reached 
Jeylon and the Nilghiri. It is possible that these two 
plants from Burma, or from some southern spot in the 
Malay Peninsula which they once occupied, reached Nilghiri- 
LINN. JOURN.— BOTANY, VOL. XXXIV. L 
