104 FLORA INDTCA. 



meridian east of the Ganges ; and the only important excep- 

 tions known to us are another species of Helicia in Ceylon, 

 Lagenophora in the same island, and the curious genera Aero- 

 trema and Schumacheria of Dilkniacea > which are more nearly 

 allied to Australian forms of that Order than to any others, 

 and of which Schumacheria is confined to Ceylon, Acrotrema 

 being also found in the Malayan peninsula and in Malabar. 



2. The Malayan Archipelago type. — This forms the bulk 

 of the Flora of the perennially humid regions of India ; as of 

 the whole Malayan peninsula, the upper Assam valley, the 

 Khasia mountains, the forests of the base of the Himalaya 

 from the Bramaputra to Nipal, of the Malabar coast, and 

 of Ceylon. It is of course impossible to specify the genera 

 or even families of so predominant an element; to do so 

 would be to enumerate a very large proportion of the Indian 

 genera, and to except only the north temperate and the com- 

 paratively few African types. The extent, however, to which 

 this element predominates is not yet appreciated, nor do we 

 ourselves know its total amount ; for constantly, during our 

 examination of the temperate as well as tropical plants of 

 the Nilghiri, Khasia, Ceylon, and the Himalaya, we find them 

 identical in species with Javanese mountain plants. That 

 botanists have neglected comparing these Indian plants with 

 Javanese Moras is not surprising, when it is considered how 

 remote Java is from any part of continental India, and that 

 geographical isolation is by many considered equivalent to 

 specific difference. We are, however, convinced, after a very 

 careful examination, that there are several plants, as Gaul- 

 theria nummularia, which extend into the North-west Hi- 

 malaya, and are also found in the Javanese mountains, which 

 are nearly 3000 miles distant : some of these have already 

 been found in intermediate localities, as the Gaultheria 

 which occurs along the whole Himalayan range, and in the 

 Khasia, and which will probably be found in the mountains 

 of the Malay peninsula and of Sumatra ; and there are many 

 other Java plants which are more uniformly spread over the 



