310 ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE BOTANY OF [Primulacee. 
layas, in Europe,’and’so many other places. Lysimachia obovata was found by Dr. 
Wallich at the foot of the mountains, in the forests bounding Oude; Androsace 
rotundifolia and incisa descend to the Deyra Doon. But in the mountains the species of 
Primulacee ave about forty-five in number, belonging to the genera Primula, Androsace, 
Lysimachia, Centunculus, and: Samolus, which are all, except Androsace, found also ii 
America. Of these, Lysimachia extends most southerly, as it is found on the Pundua 
and Neelgherry mountains, as well as on those of Taong Dong, and in Ava. (v. Wall. 
Cat. N. 1489); species are very generally diffused in the Himalayas, and found as high 
as 7,000 feet at Mussooree, but chiefly during the rainy season; one or two species 
occur also in Kunawur, with Z. thyrsiflora? Linn. Samolus Valerandi, found already 
so widely diffused in Europe, Asia, and N. America, also in New Holland, and in 
Central Africa, is likewise found in the Himalayas by the sides of springs and little 
ciglets, at elevations of 5, 000 feet, as near Chinalug, on the Suen range, and also in 
Kunawur, at Chaogaon. Centunculus indicus, nob. (v. Ic. ined. N. 348) is also found 
at moderate elevations. The genera Primula and Androsace have much the same 
distribution, sending a few species towards the foot of the mountains, and others 
towards the highest points of vegetation. Thus, as we have seen, Androsace rotundifolia 
and incisa descend towards the Doon; A. lanuginosa is found on Choor, &c., and other 
species, as A. reptans and nidulans, nob., in cold and bleak parts of Kunawur; so 
Primula has one species, P. floribunda, at as low an elevation as 5,000 feet in the 
neighbourhood of Kuerkoolee; but at higher elevations, as in the ascent to Choor in the 
earliest spring, and when the snow has just begun to melt from the neighbourhood of 
stones or trees, or from situations exposed to the full influence of the solar rays, we 
find, in full and luxuriant flower, P. denticulata and petiolaris ; on still loftier situations, 
as Gossainthan, Kedarkanta, and some of the passes, we find P. Stwartii, with its rich 
yellow glow, by the side of the equally beautiful P. purpurea: the first also extends to 
Peer Punjal, where is also found P. edliptica ; and in Kunawur, the new species, P. 0b- 
tusifolia, spathulata, involucrata and nana, nob. 
When we take into consideration the several genera which we have so frequently 
seen occupying the more elevated belt of the Himalaya, one regrets the poverty of 
the language at present applied to the geography of plants, as it is impossible to 
indicate the nature of mountain vegetation by merely using the name of the range; for 
as we have seen in the case of these mountains, the vegetation varies, and is analogous 
to that of very different countries, according to the elevation or as peculiarities of 
local circumstances cause a variation in climate. The inconveniences of this might, 
it appears, be considerably remedied, if botanical regions on the surface were more 
circumscribed according to their respective climates, or taking the several zones of 
latitude, as done by M. Mirbel; or arranging under them the several countries, as done 
by Mr. Bentham, but commencing with the equatorial, and bringing together the two 
temperate, as well as the arctic and antarctic zones; or, if necessary, dividing the 
space between the equator and poles into a greater number of zones, in conformity to 
Baron 
