Polygonee.] THE HIMALAYAN MOUNTAINS. 313 
small herbaceous plants, which affect the tropical parts of Asia and America, as they 
require both heat and humidity for their development. In India they occur in the 
mountains of the Peninsula, and from Penang and Siam they extend to Silhet, and 
thence along the. foot of the Himalayas to Nepal, and the Kheree Pass, where 
B. tenella is found in 30° of N. latitude. B. echinata and picta ascend the moun- 
tains in Kemaon, and at Mussooree are found at as great an elevation as 7,000 ~ 
feet, with B. cordata, nob., but it is only during the moisture and equable temperature 
of the rainy season, when we have seen that other tropical plants of an equally delicate 
texture and fugitive nature are found to flourish in the same localities. The leaves of 
B. barbata, called tengoor, are eaten by the natives as a pot-herb, on the mountains 
near Chirraponjee. Wall. E. I. Herb. N. 3679. 
Begonia echinata (Wall. Ic. ined. 1199. and Govan 741) herbacea, radice tuberosa, foliis sub- 
eequaliter cordatis acuminatis ineequaliter duplicato-serratis, supra reticulato-venosis, subtus rubentibus 
utrinque pilosis, stipulis acutis scariosis, cymis paucifloris, capsulis dense stellato-tomentosis alis acutis, 
una maxima.—Tab. 80. fig. 1.—(a) male; (6) female flower; (c) anther; (d e) stigmas; (f°) capsule; 
(g) stellate pubescence. 
From Dr.Wallich’s series of the Hon. E. I. Company’s unpublished drawings. 
136. POLYGONEZ. 
The Polygonee, allied in some points to Begoniacee, are so in others to Cheno- 
podee. They are very generally diffused through the hot and cold parts of the world, 
and we have them both in the plains and mountains of India; in the former, the 
genera Polygonum and Rumer, and in the pny en species of these, with Kenigia, 
Oxyria, Rheum, and Fagopyrum. ’ 
The East-Indian Polygonee have been fully illustrated by Dr. Meisner, in the third . 
volume of Dr*Wallich’s Pl. As. Rar. Thence we learn, that in this, as in other 
families, species extend from the southern to the most northern parts of India, while 
others are common to it with other countries. Of the former, Rumer Roxburghianus, 
Polygonum barbatum, glabrum, and tomentosum, may be adduced, as found near Saha- 
runpore, but only in the neighbourhood of water. The first occurs also in Java, 
China, Japan, Siberia, the West-Indies, and N. America; an extent of distribution 
which we seldom see, except in plants influenced by the equalizing effects of water 
on temperature. P. tomentosum belongs to the same section as P. senegalense and 
orientale; the latter found in India, as well as at the Cape of Good Hope and in New 
Holland. P. lanigerum is found in the two last, in Japan, as well as on the Neelgherries, 
in Nepal, the Deyra Doon, and Rama Serai, a valley within the Himalaya. P. chinense 
is indigenous in the mountains of the Peninsula and the Himalayas, as well as in 
China and Japan. P. herniaroides and Rumex dentatus exist in Egypt and the plains 
of India. P. acre is common to S. America, Bengal, and the Peninsula of India. 
P. muricatum, from Nepal, is nearly allied to the N. American P. arifélium, and 
P. horridium to P. sagittatum, found there, as well as in Siberia. 
Of the Polygonums which ascend the mountains, P. lacerum, of the section Avicu- 
laria, is found as high as 8,784 feet on the Andes; and in the Alps, P. aviculare var. 
2s nana 
