158 ILLUSTRATIONS OF INDIAN BOTANY. 
that his collection contains several not in Wallich’s list, and Mr. Arnott writes me.that he has 
recently described sixteen new ones from Ceylon. To these last, my excursions on the Cour- — 
tallum and Shevagerry hills have added about as many more. f the Courtallum ones, those 
only of which drawings were made, are introduced into this paper; not having, either speci- 
mens or sufficiently perfect notes, to enable me to define the rest. ; 
'{ ig a curious, and to me an inexplicable fact, that a genus so strikingly Indian, and asso- 
ciating such a host of species, should have been so little known to Roxburgh. He only des- 
cribes three in his Flora, t ough I am sure I speak within bounds, when I assert that the coun- e 
tries, whence he derived the materials for his work, will be found to present an assemblage of 
not fewer than one hundred species: It is no doubt an eminently alpine genus, delighting ina 
cool and moist climate; hence it is unknown on the plains of tanae 
quent in Mysore, but, so far as I have seen, only abounding, ia the Peninsula, on the higher hills 
participating in the western monsoon, which enjoy, during the hot. months,-a moderate range of 
temperature, with a very humid atmosphere. Some, (how many is not yet known,) are found 
during the monsoon on the Malabar coast, little elevated above the level of the sea, but, except 
in Tanjore, I have not seen one of the order on the plains eastward of the ghauts, beyond the 
influence of that monsoon: and the only one found there, is Aydrocera triflora, which grows, 
ut is not common, in its ditches and swampy grounds, during the cool season, and is the only 
; his peculiarity of distribution may account for his not having met with Peninsular spe- 
cles, as he was but little in the southern provinces, and perhaps they are not found in the east- 
ern range of the northern ghauts: but, twenty-two of the fort 
are from Silhet, Pundooa and Nepaul, from all of which pla 
one of the three he describes is from Silh i 
the circumstances most favourable, if n 
“ This anomaly can only be explained, and a stronger fact cannot be add 
firmation, than that the moisture and moderat 
(for it is at this season only that they are found) i 
from travellers that they are abundant in Central Indi 
cles, as well as from the Neilgherries.” 
