INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. 115 



We cannot dismiss tliis branch of the subject without al- 

 luding to a few anomalies in the distribution of Indian plants. 

 Of these, the most remarkable are the prevalence of Oaks and 

 Chesnuts throughout the Himalaya, Khasia, and Malayan 

 Peninsula, descending to the level of the sea in East Bengal, 

 Malaya, Sumatra, Java, and Borneo, contrasted with their 

 total absence throughout the Peninsula of Hindostan and 

 Ceylon. Secondly, the prevalence of Conifer a (along with 

 these Oaks), not only inhabiting high levels, but descending 

 considerably below 4000 feet : of these, Pinus, Podocarpus, 

 Taocus, and Dacrydium, are all found in the Malay Peninsula 

 and Khasia, but not one in the Hindostan Peninsula or Cey- 

 lon, though these present far more extensive and loftier 

 mountain-ranges. Thirdly, we would call attention to the 

 absence of Cycadete in Ceylon, and to the comparative rarity 

 of Palms and epiphytic Vacciniacem in that island and in the 

 Peninsula of Hindostan. 



D. Enumeration and description of the Provinces of India, as 



they will be referred to in the ' Flora Indica*.' 



The primary divisions of Continental India are four : 

 1. Hindostan, in the widest sense of that term, including the 



representation of several curious peculiar genera. The Atlantic Islands and 

 North America show an equally striking instance, in a representative species of 

 the otherwise American genus Clethra, inhabiting Madeira; North America 

 and Western Europe present others in JEriocaulon septangular e > Trichomanes 

 brevisetum, etc. China and Japan present similar analogies with the west coast 

 of North America. The most curious instance of all is, however, the occurrence 

 in New Zealand of Chilian species of Edwardsia and Saloragis, and of repre- 

 sentatives of Fuchsia, Calceolaria^ and other genera, which are found nowhere 



else throughout the Old World. 



* The sources from which the published facts contained in the following 



pages are derived are too numerous and too well known to make it d ible 

 to quote them. For many details regarding those districts which wo have not 

 ourselves seen, we have to thank Dr. Wall h, Dr. Wight, Dr. Gibson, Dr. 

 Stocks, and Captain E. Strachey. The last-named gentlem i has al.o very 

 kindly allowed us to make use of tables of mean temperature and rain-fn !, col- 

 lected with great labour for his work on the Physical Geography of the Ilnna 



laya, now in the press. 



