INTRODUCTION. xvii 



rather more than 10 per cent, are known only from the 

 Nilgiris ; and 29, or 6'6 per cent., only from the Pulneys. 

 One hundred and twenty, or 28 per cent., are not known 

 outside Southern India ; and another 72, or 17 per cent., 

 only in Ceylon. So that as much as 45 per cent., or 

 nearly half, the truly wild and indigenous species of the 

 flowering plants of these plateaus are confined to the 

 mountains of South India and Ceylon. Another 17 per 

 cent, occur on the Khasi hills, 1,500 miles away ; and 

 about 12 per cent, on the temperate parts of the Hima- 

 layas : but practically none at all in all the intervening 

 country, even along the Western Ghats. China and 

 Japan appear to have 40 of our species. 



There are 264 genera represented, exclusive of intro- 

 duced plants, and of these about one-quarter might be 

 described as belonging properly to the temperate 

 regions (and almost exclusively the north-temperate), the 

 remainder to the warmer parts of the world, including 

 tropical mountains. The temperate genera consist 

 almost entirely of the smaller herbaceous plants, exclu- 

 sive of grasses ; on the other hand practically all the trees, 

 shrubs and grasses belong to tropical or subtropical 

 genera. Thus though at first sight the flora appears a 

 temperate one, for the reason that it is the brightly 

 flowering herbs that first attract one's attention, it would 

 more accurately be described as typical of a high moun- 

 tain in the tropics. On the accompanying map are 

 shown other mountain-tops with similar floras. It will 

 be noticed how widely separated they are: and since the 

 intervening lands cannot have been crossed in recent 

 times by such species, it is usually supposed that we 

 have on these mountain-tops relics of a vegetation which 

 grew on the plains in the far distant past, when, as we 

 have reason to believe from other evidence, the climate 

 of the tropics was not so hot. The alternative explana- 

 tion that seeds have been carried by birds across these 

 long stretches, though possibly true to a certain extent, 

 does not seem to afl'ord a complete explanation. 



