ILLUSTRATIONS 
OF THE 
BOTANY OF THE HIMALAYAN MOUNTAINS. 
Tue introductory observations having enabled us to appreciate the extent and 
general nature of the territories comprised within the boundaries of India, and shown 
the general uniformity, or rather almost insensible gradation of temperature, on which 
so greatly depends the natural distribution of animal and vegetable forms, as well 
as those which are the product of art, we now proceed to the more immediate 
object of this work; that of illustrating the Flora of the Himalaya Mountains. Here 
we shall find the changes in climate more rapid at successive elevations, and the 
modifications in plants correspondingly great, whether we ascend the great moun- 
tain ranges near the Southern extremity of India or those towards its most Northern 
limits. It is necessary only to enumerate the sources whence our information has 
been drawn, to show that these have been sufficiently extended to allow some 
reliance being placed on the inferences which are deduced. 
The situation of the Honourable Company’s Botanic Garden at Saharunpore in 
30° of Northern latitude, one thousand miles to the north-west of Calcutta, elevated 
as many feet above the level of the sea, and placed nearly at the head of the extensive 
plain which forms the great Gangetic valley, was admirably adapted for enabling an 
observer to obtain a knowledge of the Flora of the plains of Northern India, as well 
as of the Himalayan Mountains, it being within thirty miles of the commencement of 
the successive ranges which form that great barrier between the dominions of the 
British and the territories of the Chinese. 
The herbarium consists of at least 3,500 species; collected, Ist, in the plains which 
form some of the north-western provinces of India, from 28° to 31° of N. lat. or from 
about Delhi to the banks of the Sutledge; 2d, ‘of plants growing in the mountainous 
tract included between the latter river and the Ganges, or between 30° and 314° of 
ie N. lat. 
