FLORA OF TIBET OR HIGH ASTA. 249 
numbers are indeed very low. Members of several other natural 
orders, such as the Violacee (Viola), the Onagracee (Epilobium), 
and the Ericacese (/thododendron niveum), have been found on 
the borders of the adjoining countries, and it is therefore 
probable that they may be represented within our limits. At 
the same time it is improbable that further researches will con- 
siderably increase the number of species, genera, or natural 
orders,—that is to say in Dry Tibet. On the other hand, if we 
keep strictly to longitudinal and latitudinal limits, say from 80° 
to 102°, and 28° to 39°, the numbers would be considerably 
augmented, especially from the country south of Lhassa between 
285° and 80°; and the contiguous parts of Chinese Turkestan and 
Mongolia, though also poor, have a more varied flora than Tibet. 
Strachey and Winterbottom’s collections illustrate this point, and 
so does Przewalski’s so far as it has been published. Of Hedin’s 
small collection, nearly a third was from the Arka Tag moun- 
tains, where he entered Tibet ; and the only new species, Gentiana 
edini and G. cordisepala, were from this region. Itis probable, 
therefore, that some of the species included in the list of his 
plants should have been left out. The two species of Gentiana 
in question were originally left out, because we had seen no 
specimens, and subsequently because it was ascertained that they 
were from Sarik Kol. Under the head of “ Vegetation” we 
give some particulars of the botanical collection made by Bonvalot 
and Prince Henry of Orleans, chiefly between Lhassa and 
Tachienlu, and our reasons for not including them. In the same 
place an account is given of several other collections from the 
countries adjoining Tibet. 
Natural Orders. 
The forty-one natural orders found in Tibet are either nearly 
cosmopolitan, or at least widely spread in the northern hemi- 
sphere, and all are represented in the British flora by incigenous 
Species except the Tamariscacex, Zygophyllacex, Selaginacee, 
and Gnetacex, and all are represented in the European flora. 
The ordinal representation, taken systematically, is as 
follows :— 
