44 ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE BOTANY OF [Ranunculacee. 
part of India. The tribe of Clematidea, distinguished from the other Ranunculacee by 
their valvular estivation, opposite leaves, and generally scandent habit, may therefore 
be considered the least ranunculaceous of the family, have also a few species in the plains 
of India. Naravelia Zeylanica, belonging toa genus peculiar to India, is common in 
Ceylon, and everywhere in the Peninsula, but not found above the province of Bengal ; 
Clematis Gouriana, common in hedges and in the jungle at the foot of hills, extends 
from the Neelgherries and from Dindygul, near the extremity of the Peninsula, up to the 
Deyra Doon, in 30° of N. latitude, along the foot of the Himalaya: but it is worthy of 
remark, that this species, as well as C. grata, flowers only in the autumn, or at the 
commencement of the cold season of the plains, while the Himalayan species flower in 
the spring, or at the commencement of the warm weather of the mountains, that is, 
according to elevation, either in April or May; and it is remarkable, that April and 
October: are the two months in which the mean temperature of the year is found to 
occur in most places; and though the temperature of October and November in the 
plains is above that of May and Apmil in the hills, yet the approximation is greater than 
if the respective species flowered in the same months in the different places. Nigella 
sativa, found in the south of Europe, Asia Minor, and Syria, exists only in the gardens 
of India, but where, from its numerous Indian names and uses, it must, as well as 
Delphinium Ajacis, have been long acclimated, and formed a part of the ornamental 
flower-garden of the cold weather months. 
The genera of Ranunculacee of which species are found in the Himalayas, are Clemaiis, 
Thalictrum, Anemone, Ranunculus, and Caltha, distributed also throughout the cold and 
temperate parts. of both the northern and southern hemispheres, and with these we have 
also species of Adonis, Trollius, Aquilegia, Delphinium, Aconitum, Cimicifuga, Actéa; 
and. Peonia, which. the. Himalayas share in common with Siberia, Europe, and America. 
No genus of this family has yet been discovered peculiar to these mountains, as Knowltonia 
to the Cape of Good. Hope, Hamadryas to South, and Hepaticu, Hydrastis, and 
Zanthorhiza to North America. It is interesting to observe, that the genera, of which 
only. species are found in the highest. latitudes, are those also which are alone found on 
the highest peaks of the Himalaya: thus Ranunculus afinis and Caltha arctica were 
found in Melville Island, so I found only. R. polypetalus and C. Himalqyanus on the top 
of Kedarkanta, with Anemone discolor a little lower down; of this. genus species 
extend as far as 68° of N. latitude. Species of Thalictrum are found in the same 
situations later in the year, but as the Himalayas are within the influence of the 
periodical rains, a degree of moisture‘and equability of temperature .is produced during 
that season, which allows of the existence of genera and species at, elevations where 
they could not; otherwise. ‘exist, The Himalayan genera of Ranunculacee, with the 
_ exception. of -Cerotocephalus, are exactly those enumerated by. Ledebour, as those of 
which, cles are found in the Altai mountains; and also, with the exception: of 
Helleborus and. Nigella, which do not extend either eastward to the Altai or southward 
to the Himalaya, the, same genera as those enumerated by Meyer and Bieberstein, as 
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